That's the Black Fact: Introducing Henry Boyd
Henry Boyd
“Welcome to ‘That’s the Black Fact’. In this space you’ll find profiles on the culture and the people who built it!”
By: Ervin Green
Introducing Henry Boyd, inventor, carpenter, and master mechanic!
Henry Boyd (1802-1886)
Henry Boyd was born enslaved on a plantation in Kentucky in 1802. He spent the first 18 years of his life enslaved. During his youth, he was apprenticed out to a cabinet maker. He turned out to be a very skilled apprentice that allowed him to accept additional work assignments.
Doing additional work, he was able to save enough money to gain his freedom. At 24, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Ohio was a free state but its close border to Kentucky didn’t make it a welcoming state for African Americans.
To make ends meet, Boyd found work at the riverfront where most African American and Irish people found employment unloading cargo from steamboats. It wasn’t long before he became a janitor at a store.
Boyd’s fortune changed when a white carpenter showed up too drunk to work. Boyd used this opportunity to build a counter for the shopkeeper. So impressed by the craftsmanship, the storekeeper began to help him get contracted by other businesses where he found himself working side by side with white carpenters.
Henry Boyd accumulated enough money to purchase his own workshop for woodworking. His workshop soon grew to encompass four buildings located at the corner of Eighth and Broadway in Cincinnati. Here, Boyd would build and assemble bedframes of his own design, the Boyd Bedstead. This was an improvement over existing bedframes of the day.
The Boyd Bedstead utilized a right and left wood screw process, with swelled rails, making for a sturdier fit to endure more stress. He was unable to obtain a patent for it, due to the color of his skin.
In 1883 George Porter, a white cabinet maker obtained a patent for the technology Boyd used for making the beds. Boyd's bed design started to be duplicated by others. He stamped his name on each frame so that people would know that they were receiving the real Boyd Bedstead.
The H. Boyd Company, as his business was known, catered to hotels as well as individuals. In 1844, the company produced over 1,000 beds. By 1855, H. Boyd Company had expanded to include a showroom that also displayed his parlor furniture.
Sadly after a third fire destroyed his business, insurance companies refused to insure him. That led to the closing of his business for good in 1862. On March 1, 1886, Henry Boyd passed away at the age of 83. Despite his success and prominence achieved, Boyd was laid to rest in an unmarked grave in the Spring Grove Cemetary.
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