Jan Ernst Matzeliger was an inventor of Surinamese and Dutch descent, best known for patenting the shoe-making machine, which made shoes more affordable (biography.com). His invention made necessary tasks such as making shoes easier to accomplish; al This also made it easier for ordinary people to purchase shoes in the late 1800s. Jan Ernst Matzeliger was born on September 15, 1852, in Paramaribo, Suriname, known at the time as Dutch Guiana. Matzeliger's father was a Dutch engineer and his mother was Surinamese. Showing mechanical aptitude from an early age, Matzeliger began working in machine shops supervised by his father at age 10. At 19, he left Suriname to see the world as a sailor on an East India merchant ship. In 1873, he moved to Philadelphia (www.biography.com). After moving to the United States, he spoke very little English; and for several years he worked on learning the English language. Matzeliger possessed many mechanical abilities, but as a black man in the 1870s his professional opportunities were limited. In 1877, Matzeliger moved to Massachusetts where he found ...