Sarah E. Goode was an entrepreneur and inventor. She was the first African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 woman to receive a United States patent.

Goode was born in 1850 into slavery. She was freed after the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 and proceeded to open a furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

 store in Chicago, Illinois. She noticed that those who lived in apartments in the city had very little space for beds, so she invented a folding cabinet bed and received patent for it on July 14, 1885. When the cabinet bed was folded up it looked like a desk

Desk

A desk is a furniture form and a class of table often used in a work or office setting for reading or writing on or using a computer. Desks often have one or more drawers to store office supplies and papers. Unlike a regular table, usually only one side of a desk is suitable to sit on . Not all...

, including spaces for writing instruments and storage.