Judy Woodford Reed (c. 1826 – c. 1905)[1] was an African-American woman alive during the 1880s, whose only records are a US patent and censuses.
The patent was for an improved design of existing rollers with dough mixing more evenly while being kept covered and protected.
[2] She first appears in the 1870 Federal Census as a 44 year old seamstress in Fredericksville Parish near Charlottesville, Virginia, in Albemarle County, along with her husband Allen, a gardener, and their five children [3] Ten years later, Allen and Judy Reed were still in Virginia, this time with a grandson.
[1] Until 1863 it was illegal for slaves to be literate, and those found reading, writing or teaching others could be punished severely or killed.
Her patent, 322,177 Archived 2018-08-02 at the Wayback Machine, granted on July 14, 1885, was for a cabinet-bed, "that class of sectional bedsteads adapted to be folded together when not in use, so as to occupy less space, and made generally to resemble some article of furniture when so folded.