[1] Jennings' invention, along with his business expertise, yielded a significant personal fortune, much of which he put into the abolitionist movement in the United States.
[4] Under New York's gradual abolition law of 1799, she was converted to the status of an indentured servant and was not eligible for full emancipation until 1827.
In 1831, Jennings was selected as assistant secretary to the First Annual Convention of the People of Color in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which met in June of that year.
He helped arrange her legal defense, which included the young future President Chester Arthur, and won her case in 1855.
In 1865, a decade after Elizabeth Jennings won her case, New York City streetcar companies stopped practicing segregation.
Jennings funded and was a trustee of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, a significant institution in the Harlem African American community.