THERE ARE TWO things you need to become an engineer - ability and opportunity. For a black American in the mid-19th century, the latter was in very short supply. Despite this, one navigated the obstacles in his path and helped oil the wheels of America's coming of age. Elijah McCoy was probably born in 1844, before the Civil War, and under other circumstances might have expected to spend his entire life as a slave on a Southern plantation. Yet Elijah was born free, thanks to his fugitive slave parents, George and Emilia, and the shadowy network of anti-slavery campaigners who helped them escape from the South via the 'Underground Railroad'. George and Emilia (sometimes called Mildred) escaped to Detroit and then on to Canada, where Elijah and nine of his siblings could be born free.
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