Confederate Patent Office rule: "If the inventor be a slave, his master may make the oath in his stead" (Richmond, VA, 1861)

SUMMARYConfederate Patent Office rule: "If the inventor be a slave, his master may make the oath in his stead" (Richmond, VA, 1861) [Connections: Tech & skilled labor, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDThe Confederate Patent Office's printed rules, issued under the act of 21 May 1861, state in Rule 5 ("Who Is Entitled to a Patent"): "If the inventor be a slave, his master may make the oath in his stead," and "on complying with the requisites of the law, may obtain a patent." Rule 9 adds "unless he be a slave," and Rule 13 adds "or by his master if he be a slave." HistoryNet says Jefferson Davis put this provision into the Confederate statute, and that the office (headed by Rufus Rhodes, a former US examiner) issued about 200 patents. Most of its records were lost before Richmond fell. HOSTILE

WITNESSThis is the slaveholding government writing its own rules

PATTERNThe fix that Stuart asked for in 1858 became law in the Confederacy. The master swears the oath, and the master takes the patent

LENS (WW9)Here it is in print: the Confederacy wrote a rule so the master could patent the mind of the man he held

OPENWhether any Confederate patent was actually issued to a master for an enslaved person's invention. Needs deep research (see Sean Vannatta, "The Confederate States Patent Office," and Frye, "The Confederate Patent Act (1861)," both MIT Press 2022)

SOURCERules and Directions for Proceedings in the Confederate States Patent Office (Richmond: Enquirer Book and Job Press, 1861), Internet Archive full text.