In modern times, despite poor record-keeping and erased histories, it has been revealed that enslaved African-Americans contributed far more than free labor to this country.A slave, Jo Anderson, is largely credited as the co-inventor of the McCormick mechanical reaper, which revolutionized American farming in the 19th Century.Jo Anderson, who was born in 1808, was owned by the family of inventor Robert McCormick. McCormick invented a horse-drawn reaper, which is an instrument that gathers and collects crops, but never refined the device. He handed over the designs to his son, Cyrus, who made significant improvements, but Anderson was right there in lockstep with the younger McCormick.
