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Benjamin Banneker 1731 ~ 1806 Astronomer, Inventor,
Surveyor, Gazetteer As a mathematician and writer, his work so impressed Thomas Jefferson, that he forwarded some of Banneker’s manuscripts to the Academy of Science in France. Jefferson, then Secretary of State, wanted to brand false the myth that somehow black people were intellectually inferior. Here is what he wrote to Banneker: Philadelphia, Aug. 30, 1791 Sir, - I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th instant and for the Almanac it contained. No body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa & America. I can add with truth, that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising the condition both of their body and mind to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances which cannot be neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your Almanac to Monsieur de Condorcet, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and member of the Philanthropic society, because I considered it as a document to which your whole color had a right for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them. I am with great esteem, Sir Your most obed humble Serv Thomas Jefferson The life and accomplishments of Benjamin Banneker illustrate his superior mentality. He was born in Ellicott, Maryland, the son of a free mother and a slave father who had purchased his own freedom, as well as a farm of 120 acres near Baltimore. Benjamin was thus considered free and was able to attend an integrated private school. He showed exceptional interest in mathematics and an aptitude for anything mechanical. By the time he was 22 years old, he had designed and built and unusual clock, perhaps the first of its kind in America. Made of wood, the clock struck the hours and kept perfect time, it is said, for more than 20 years. When his father died, Banneker, then 27, took charge of the farm, but his real interests lay elsewhere. He continued to seek knowledge and, when a neighbor loaned him some instruments and books covering the fields of astronomy and surveying, he studied and mastered them by night. So skillful did he become that his knowledge of mathematics and astronomy enabled him to predict the solar eclipse of 1789. Two years later, Banneker began to publish a series of almanacs. They contained information on astronomy, tide tables and medicinal products and dissertations on insect life. His knowledge of surveying, however, brought him his greatest fame. He worked with the six-man team, which laid out the street plan for the new federal city of Washington. When the chairman of the committee, Major L’Enfant, suddenly left and returned to France with his plans, Banneker’s remarkable memory helped him to duplicate them precisely. Banneker’s almanacs contained many concepts and ideas, which probed far beyond his time. He anticipated the formation of a Department of the Interior and the United Nations. He strongly opposed capital punishment, war, and militarism in general. His almanac of 1793, for example, carried his paper, "A Plan of Peace-Office for the United States." |
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