Shoes for Everyone: A Story about Jan Matzeliger

by Barbara Mitchell, Hetty Mitchell (Illustrator)

Jan Matzeliger felt anything but welcome in Philadelphia in 1873. As well as being a foreigner, Jan was half African American, which meant that most doors were closed to him. Although the Civil War had been over for nearly ten years, inequality for African Americans still persisted in its aftermath. However, Jan refused to let prejudice keep him from achieving his dream of making a shoe-lasting machine to replace the tedious, time-consuming hand sewing that held up shoe manufacturing processes in his day.

Genres: Biography, History, American History, Childrens, African American

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Ma · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heart-warming story. Should be better known.

[Cala · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jan Matzeliger has an inspiring story, but this biography is not written the best. The first chapter provides the childhood summary. The second and third chapters tell of his trouble finding appropriate work in Philadelphia and Massachusetts. While Jan certainly had struggles finding a chance to display his skilled labor experience due to his dark skin and the mistaken cultural prejudices at that time, the author repeatedly refers to "race" in an overemphatic way. This is plainly inaccurate, as there is only one race - the human race. Chapters four and five return to being a good biography of Jan's story, talents, hardships, sacrifices, and inventions.

I read this for myself to further my knowledge and understanding of American History. It is recommended as an extra book for Sonlight's HBL K, but I chose not to read it aloud to my 6 y.o. as it is longer than I think he would have enjoyed. It is also rather dry (being a non-story-like biography).

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read aloud to Ben

[Good · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very fascinating true story about a passionate, hardworking, brilliant man. The writing was mediocre.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jan Matzeliger's life has been an encouragement and inspiration to me for years. His diligence, determination and Christlike generosity are rare and admirable. Like most inventors who are both creative and intelligent, his major fault seems to be driving himself too hard during his short 37 years of life. Yet, in those few short years, and in the face of lingering post-Civil War prejudice and meager resources, he experienced a wonderful triumph.

If I could only travel back in time to marvel while he created his "dexterous-machine". Then hang around long enough to watch this amazing shoe-lasting wonder complete the final step of joining the upper to the inner sole in 700 pairs of shoes ~~ in as few as ten hours~~ where previously, only 50 finished pairs would meet manufacturers expectations. Obviously, the hand sewn methods were woefully slower, but no one else envisioned a machine that could compete with the dexterity of the human hand. His impossible-machine made shoes more affordable ~~ possible for the tightest of budgets~~ and gave New England manufactures a staggering edge on the market.

Jan was half Dutch boy via South America (Dutch Guiana, now Suriname) and half black West African, (Surinamese). According to the story, he would have played with boys and girls back in his homeland who wore the wooden shoes of the Dutch cobblers, or like his own shoes, made of expensive leather, crafted in New England. Possibly, he ran along side the bare-feet of children too poor for either. The Dutch girl in me can not help but wonder about the cobbler's price for a pair of wooden shoes back even further in time, in the 1600's, back when my ancestors and possibly Jan's walked on the land where dikes were built.

Interestingly, back when Jan was ten, (1862), dikes reclaimed his boyhood home way south of New England, down the Atlantic, just as they did our European ancestor's home, across the Atlantic, in Holland. A new Holland began, a South American colony which I mentioned above as Dutch Guiana. Like the improbability of Jan's new "dexterous-machine", dikes were built which some men thought could never be built strong enough to hold back the sea. For the sea covered much of the land, but the dikes held! Perhaps, just such an accomplishment had inspired Jan as a young boy, and rippled through his will to strengthen it while he built, and dreamed of the "impossible".

Sadly, the "impossible-dikes" were built by West African slaves,(c.300,000), shoulder to shoulder with the Dutchmen. Ah, so while I admire that we Dutch are thrifty, resourceful, and some of us never give up! Once again, my compassion is stirred; I want to look into the lives and welfare of Jan's African slave brothers who remained in his childhood Tropical home.

[Scartowner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written for children, this book tells the story of a talented young man who prevailed in his invention of specialized machinery for shoe manufacturing. He did this despite prejudice and poverty. Jan Matzeliger was bi-racial, born of a white Dutch father and black Surinamese mother in Paramimbo, off the coast of South America. His work revolutionized shoe making into efficient mass production, enabling shoes to become more available and affordable around the world. Just as important, his story recognizes the challenges of racism in the North immediately after the Civil War.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

A simple biography of Jan Matzeliger of Dutch Guiana who came to America in 1873 and invented an automatic lasting machine, patented in 1883, that revolutionized the shoe-making industry, cutting the price of shoes in half.

[Bryan Spahr]

read for school in 4th grade

[Dawn Roberts]

From the Sonlight 4th grade reading list. A nice can-do story.