Jan Ernst Matzeliger (September 15, 1852 – August 24, 1889) was a Surinamese-American inventor whose automated lasting machine brought significant change to the manufacturing of shoes.

His father, Ernst Carel Martzilger jr. (1823–1864), was a third generation Dutchman of German descent living in the Dutch Guiana capital city of Paramaribo.

At the age of ten, Jan Matzeliger was apprenticed in the Colonial Ship Works in Paramaribo, where he demonstrated a natural aptitude for machinery and mechanics.

By 1877, he spoke adequate English (Dutch was his native tongue) and moved to Massachusetts to pursue his interest in the shoe industry.

Since the greatest difficulty in shoemaking was the actual assembly of the soles to the upper shoe, it required great skill to tack and sew the two components together.

[1][4] In fact, contemporaries referred to him as the "Dutch nigger" and his machine as the "niggerhead laster,"[5][6] a term used in the apparel industry at the time for a certain type of fabric.