George and Rebecca Latimer had no idea that their successful escape from slavery in Norfolk, Virginia would spark a national cause célèbre and catalyze abolitionists to demand stronger laws to protect other fugitives from slavery. Check out the beautiful story of the long and arduous struggle of this brave couple's journey to freedom, which started out by hiding in a Norfolk, Virginia steamship headed for Boston.
Today, 1842, a judge finally granted them their freedom in Boston. The Latimers remained in Massachusetts for the rest of their lives. George worked as a paperhanger and joined the abolitionist movement. They had four children, the youngest of whom, Lewis Howard Latimer (pictured below) born in 1848, became a draftsman and an important inventor that played a pivotal role in the development of the electric light bulb and other groundbreaking inventions.
https://edison.rutgers.edu/.../the-george-latimer-case 
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