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On October 9, 1806, Benjamin Banneker, African American astronomer, mathematician and surveyor of Washington D.C., died at the age of 74. From the article:
"Benjamin Banneker (November 9, 1731 – October 9, 1806) was a free African American almanac author, surveyor, naturalist, and farmer. Born in Baltimore County, Maryland, to a free African American woman and a former slave, Banneker had little formal education and was largely self-taught. He is known for being part of a group led by Major Andrew Ellicott that surveyed the original borders of the District of Columbia, the federal capital district of the United States.
Banneker's knowledge of astronomy helped him author a commercially successful series of almanacs. He corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the United States Declaration of Independence, on the topics of slavery and racial equality. Abolitionists and advocates of racial equality promoted and praised his works.
Although a fire on the day of Banneker's funeral destroyed many of his papers and belongings, one of his journals and several of his remaining artifacts are presently available for public viewing. Parks, schools, streets and other tributes have commemorated Banneker throughout the years since he lived. However, many accounts of his life exaggerate or falsely attribute his works.
Early life
Benjamin Banneker was born on November 9, 1731, in Baltimore County, Maryland to Mary Banneky, a free black, and Robert, a freed slave from Guinea.[2][3][4] There are two conflicting accounts of Banneker's family history. Banneker himself and his earliest biographers described him as having only African ancestry.[5][6][7] None of Banneker's surviving papers describe a white ancestor or identify the name of his grandmother.[6]
However, later biographers have contended that Banneker's mother was the child of Molly Welsh, a white indentured servant, and an African slave named Banneka.[6][8] The first published description of Molly Welsh was based on interviews with her descendants that took place in 1836, long after the deaths of both Molly and Benjamin.[6][9]
Molly may have purchased Banneka to help establish a farm located near the future site of Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, west of Baltimore.[10] One biographer has suggested that Banneka may have been a member of the Dogon tribe that were reported to have knowledge of astronomy.[11] Molly supposedly freed and married Banneka, who may have shared his knowledge of astronomy with her.[12] Although born after Banneka's death, Benjamin may have acquired some knowledge of astronomy from Molly.[11]
In 1737, Banneker was named at the age of 6 on the deed of his family's 100-acre (0.40 km2) farm in the Patapsco Valley in rural Baltimore County.[13][14][15] The remainder of his early life is not well documented. As a young teenager, he may have met and befriended Peter Heinrichs, a Quaker who established a school near the Banneker farm.[16] Quakers were leaders in the anti-slavery movement and advocates of racial equality (see Quakers in the abolition movement and Testimony of equality).[17] Heinrichs may have shared his personal library and provided Banneker with his only classroom instruction.[16] Banneker's formal education apparently ended when he was old enough to help on his family's farm.[18]
Notable works
In 1753 at the age of 22, Banneker completed a wooden clock that struck on the hour. He appears to have modeled his clock from a borrowed pocket watch by carving each piece to scale. The clock purportedly continued to work until Banneker's death.[4][18][19][20]
After his father died in 1759, Banneker lived with his mother and sisters.[4][21] In 1768, he signed a Baltimore County petition to move the county seat from Joppa to Baltimore.[22]
In 1772, brothers Andrew Ellicott, John Ellicott and Joseph Ellicott moved from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and bought land along the Patapsco Falls near Banneker's farm on which to construct gristmills, around which the village of Ellicott's Mills (now Ellicott City) subsequently developed.[14][23][24][25] The Ellicotts were Quakers and shared the same views on racial equality as did many of their faith.[24][26] Banneker studied the mills and became acquainted with their proprietors.[23][27]
In 1788, George Ellicott, the son of Andrew Ellicott, loaned Banneker books and equipment to begin a more formal study of astronomy.[28][29][30] During the following year, Banneker sent George his work calculating a solar eclipse.[28][29][31]
In 1790, Banneker prepared an ephemeris for 1791, which he hoped would be placed within a published almanac. However, he was unable to find a printer that was willing to publish and distribute the almanac.[28][32]
Survey of the original boundaries of the District of Columbia
In February 1791, surveyor Major Andrew Ellicott (the son of Joseph Ellicott and cousin of George Ellicott), having left at the request of U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson a surveying team in western New York that he had been leading, hired Banneker as a replacement to assist in the initial survey of the boundaries of a new federal district.[28][33][34][35] Formed from land along the Potomac River that the states of Maryland and Virginia ceded to the federal government of the United States in accordance with the 1790 federal Residence Act and later legislation, the territory that became the original District of Columbia was a square measuring 10 miles (16 km) on each side, totaling 100 square miles (260 km2) (see: Founding of Washington, D.C.).[28][34][33][36] Ellicott's team placed boundary stones at or near every mile point along the borders of the new capital territory (see: Boundary Markers of the Original District of Columbia).[28][34][33]
Biographers have stated that Banneker's duties on the survey consisted primarily of making astronomical observations at Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia, to ascertain the location of the starting point for the survey.[28][33][37] They have also stated that Banneker maintained a clock that he used to relate points on the ground to the positions of stars at specific times.[28][37] However, some have noted that Banneker's actual role in the survey is uncertain, as his involvement in the effort "rests on extremely meager documentation".[38] An April 21, 1791, news report of the dedication ceremony for the first boundary stone (the south cornerstone) stated that it was Andrew Ellicott who ″ascertained the precise point from which the first line of the district was to proceed".[39] The news report did not mention Banneker's name.[40]
Banneker left the boundary survey in April 1791 within three months of its initiation due to illness and difficulties completing the survey at age 59.[28][33][41][42] In addition, Andrew Ellicott's younger brothers, Benjamin and Joseph Ellicott, who usually assisted Andrew, were able to join the survey at that time.[28][33][42] Banneker therefore returned to his home near Ellicott's Mills.[28][41] Andrew Ellicott then completed the boundary survey with the aid of his brothers and other team members during the remainder of 1791 and in 1792.[28][34][43]
Banneker's almanacs
After returning to Ellicott's Mills, Banneker made astronomical calculations that predicted eclipses and planetary conjunctions for inclusion in an ephemeris for the year of 1792.[4][28][32] He placed the ephemeris and its subsequent revisions in a six-year series of almanacs that printers agreed to publish and sell.[28][32] The almanacs, some of which appeared in several editions during the same year, were printed in at least six cities in four states: Baltimore; Philadelphia; Wilmington, Delaware; Alexandria, Virginia; Petersburg, Virginia; and Richmond, Virginia.[28][32][44][45][46][47][48][49]
The title page of a Baltimore edition of Banneker's 1792 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris stated that the publication contained:
the Motions of the Sun and Moon, the True Places and Aspects of the Planets, the Rising and Setting of the Sun, Place and Age of the Moon, &c. – The Lunations, Conjunctions, Eclipses, Judgment of the Weather, Festivals, and other remarkable Days; Days for holding the Supreme and Circuit Courts of the United States, as also the useful Courts in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Also – several useful Tables, and valuable Receipts. – Various Selections from the Commonplace–Book of the Kentucky Philosopher, an American Sage; with interesting and entertaining Essays, in Prose and Verse –the whole comprising a greater, more pleasing, and useful Variety than any Work of the Kind and Price in North America.[44][50]
In addition to the information that its title page described, the almanac contained a tide table for the Chesapeake Bay region. That edition and others listed times for high water or high tide at Cape Charles and Point Lookout, Virginia, Annapolis and Baltimore, Maryland and other locations.[4][52] The title page of a Baltimore edition of his 1795 almanac had a woodcut portrait of him as he may have appeared, but which a writer later concluded was more likely a portrayal of an idealized African American youth.[51][53]
A Philadelphia edition of Banneker's 1795 almanac contained a lengthy account of a yellow fever epidemic that had struck that city in 1793 (see 1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic). Written by a committee whose president was the city's mayor, Matthew Clarkson, the account related the presumed origins and causes of the epidemic, as well as the extent and duration of the event.[54]
The almanacs' editors prefaced the publications with adulatory references to Banneker and his race.[32][55] Editions of his 1792 and 1793 almanacs contained copies of a lengthy commendation that James McHenry,[56] a signer of the United States Constitution and self-described friend of Banneker, had written in August 1791.[57]
The introduction to a 1795 Philadelphia edition contained a poem entitled: "Addressed to Benjamin Banneker".[58][59] The verse began and ended:
Fain would the muse exalt her tuneful lays,
And chant in strains sublime Banneker's praise;
Fain would the soar on Fame's majestic wing,
Thy genius, great Banneker, to sing;
Thy talents and thy greatness would I shew,
Not in applausive strains to thee undue;
..............
Long may thou live an evidence to shew,
That Afric's sable race have talents too.
And may thy genius bright its strength retain;
Tho' nature to decline may still remain;
And may favour us to thy latest years
With thy Ephemeris call'd Banneker's.
A work which ages yet unborn shall name
And be the monument of lasting fame;
A work which after ages shall adore,
When Banneker, alas! shall be no more! [58]
The writer of a tribute in a 1796 Baltimore edition quoted a quatrain[60] and amended another[61] that an Englishman, Thomas Gray, had placed in a popular poem first published in 1751 (see Adaptations and parodies of Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard).[62][63] The revised rhyme stated:
Nor you ye proud, impute to these the blame
If Afric's sons to genius are unknown,
For Banneker has prov'd they may acquire a name,
As bright, as lasting, as your own.[62][64]
Supported by Andrew, George and Elias Ellicott and heavily promoted by the Society for the Promotion of the Abolition of Slavery of Maryland and of Pennsylvania, the early editions of the almanacs achieved commercial success.[26][28][32] After these editions were published, William Wilberforce, William Pitt, Charles James Fox and other prominent abolitionists praised Banneker and his works in the British House of Commons.[26][28][32]
In 1796, Banneker gave a manuscript of one of his almanacs to Suzanna Mason, a member of the Ellicott family who was visiting his home.[65] In 1836, Mason's daughter wrote a published memoir of her mother's life, letters and manuscripts.[66] The memoir contained a copy of a poem that Mason had sent to Banneker shortly after her 1796 visit.[67] A portion of the verse stated:
But thou, a man exhalted high,
Conspicuous in the world's keen eye,
On record now thy name's enrolled,
And future ages will be told,
There lived a man called Banneker,
An African astronomer.[68]
Banneker's journals
Banneker kept a series of journals that contained his notebooks for astronomical observations, his diary and accounts of his dreams.[28][69] The journals, only one of which escaped a fire on the day of his funeral, additionally contained a number of mathematical calculations and puzzles.[28][69][70] The surviving journal described in April 1800 his recollections of the 1749, 1766 and 1783 emergences of Brood X of the seventeen-year periodical cicada, Magicicada septendecim, and stated that ".... they may be expected again in the year 1800, which is Seventeen years since their third appearance to me."[71] The journal also recorded Banneker's observations on the hives and behavior of honey bees.[72]
Political views
A Philadelphia edition of Banneker's 1793 almanac contained copies of pleas for peace that the English anti-slavery poet William Cowper and others had authored, as well as anti-slavery speeches and writings from England and America. The latter included extracts from speeches that William Pitt and Charles James Fox had given to the British House of Commons in 1792, an extract from a 1789 poem by an English Quaker, Thomas Wilkinson,[73] and an extract from a query in Thomas Jefferson's 1787 Notes on the State of Virginia.[45][74]"
"Benjamin Banneker (November 9, 1731 – October 9, 1806) was a free African American almanac author, surveyor, naturalist, and farmer. Born in Baltimore County, Maryland, to a free African American woman and a former slave, Banneker had little formal education and was largely self-taught. He is known for being part of a group led by Major Andrew Ellicott that surveyed the original borders of the District of Columbia, the federal capital district of the United States.
Banneker's knowledge of astronomy helped him author a commercially successful series of almanacs. He corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the United States Declaration of Independence, on the topics of slavery and racial equality. Abolitionists and advocates of racial equality promoted and praised his works.
Although a fire on the day of Banneker's funeral destroyed many of his papers and belongings, one of his journals and several of his remaining artifacts are presently available for public viewing. Parks, schools, streets and other tributes have commemorated Banneker throughout the years since he lived. However, many accounts of his life exaggerate or falsely attribute his works.
Early life
Benjamin Banneker was born on November 9, 1731, in Baltimore County, Maryland to Mary Banneky, a free black, and Robert, a freed slave from Guinea.[2][3][4] There are two conflicting accounts of Banneker's family history. Banneker himself and his earliest biographers described him as having only African ancestry.[5][6][7] None of Banneker's surviving papers describe a white ancestor or identify the name of his grandmother.[6]
However, later biographers have contended that Banneker's mother was the child of Molly Welsh, a white indentured servant, and an African slave named Banneka.[6][8] The first published description of Molly Welsh was based on interviews with her descendants that took place in 1836, long after the deaths of both Molly and Benjamin.[6][9]
Molly may have purchased Banneka to help establish a farm located near the future site of Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, west of Baltimore.[10] One biographer has suggested that Banneka may have been a member of the Dogon tribe that were reported to have knowledge of astronomy.[11] Molly supposedly freed and married Banneka, who may have shared his knowledge of astronomy with her.[12] Although born after Banneka's death, Benjamin may have acquired some knowledge of astronomy from Molly.[11]
In 1737, Banneker was named at the age of 6 on the deed of his family's 100-acre (0.40 km2) farm in the Patapsco Valley in rural Baltimore County.[13][14][15] The remainder of his early life is not well documented. As a young teenager, he may have met and befriended Peter Heinrichs, a Quaker who established a school near the Banneker farm.[16] Quakers were leaders in the anti-slavery movement and advocates of racial equality (see Quakers in the abolition movement and Testimony of equality).[17] Heinrichs may have shared his personal library and provided Banneker with his only classroom instruction.[16] Banneker's formal education apparently ended when he was old enough to help on his family's farm.[18]
Notable works
In 1753 at the age of 22, Banneker completed a wooden clock that struck on the hour. He appears to have modeled his clock from a borrowed pocket watch by carving each piece to scale. The clock purportedly continued to work until Banneker's death.[4][18][19][20]
After his father died in 1759, Banneker lived with his mother and sisters.[4][21] In 1768, he signed a Baltimore County petition to move the county seat from Joppa to Baltimore.[22]
In 1772, brothers Andrew Ellicott, John Ellicott and Joseph Ellicott moved from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and bought land along the Patapsco Falls near Banneker's farm on which to construct gristmills, around which the village of Ellicott's Mills (now Ellicott City) subsequently developed.[14][23][24][25] The Ellicotts were Quakers and shared the same views on racial equality as did many of their faith.[24][26] Banneker studied the mills and became acquainted with their proprietors.[23][27]
In 1788, George Ellicott, the son of Andrew Ellicott, loaned Banneker books and equipment to begin a more formal study of astronomy.[28][29][30] During the following year, Banneker sent George his work calculating a solar eclipse.[28][29][31]
In 1790, Banneker prepared an ephemeris for 1791, which he hoped would be placed within a published almanac. However, he was unable to find a printer that was willing to publish and distribute the almanac.[28][32]
Survey of the original boundaries of the District of Columbia
In February 1791, surveyor Major Andrew Ellicott (the son of Joseph Ellicott and cousin of George Ellicott), having left at the request of U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson a surveying team in western New York that he had been leading, hired Banneker as a replacement to assist in the initial survey of the boundaries of a new federal district.[28][33][34][35] Formed from land along the Potomac River that the states of Maryland and Virginia ceded to the federal government of the United States in accordance with the 1790 federal Residence Act and later legislation, the territory that became the original District of Columbia was a square measuring 10 miles (16 km) on each side, totaling 100 square miles (260 km2) (see: Founding of Washington, D.C.).[28][34][33][36] Ellicott's team placed boundary stones at or near every mile point along the borders of the new capital territory (see: Boundary Markers of the Original District of Columbia).[28][34][33]
Biographers have stated that Banneker's duties on the survey consisted primarily of making astronomical observations at Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia, to ascertain the location of the starting point for the survey.[28][33][37] They have also stated that Banneker maintained a clock that he used to relate points on the ground to the positions of stars at specific times.[28][37] However, some have noted that Banneker's actual role in the survey is uncertain, as his involvement in the effort "rests on extremely meager documentation".[38] An April 21, 1791, news report of the dedication ceremony for the first boundary stone (the south cornerstone) stated that it was Andrew Ellicott who ″ascertained the precise point from which the first line of the district was to proceed".[39] The news report did not mention Banneker's name.[40]
Banneker left the boundary survey in April 1791 within three months of its initiation due to illness and difficulties completing the survey at age 59.[28][33][41][42] In addition, Andrew Ellicott's younger brothers, Benjamin and Joseph Ellicott, who usually assisted Andrew, were able to join the survey at that time.[28][33][42] Banneker therefore returned to his home near Ellicott's Mills.[28][41] Andrew Ellicott then completed the boundary survey with the aid of his brothers and other team members during the remainder of 1791 and in 1792.[28][34][43]
Banneker's almanacs
After returning to Ellicott's Mills, Banneker made astronomical calculations that predicted eclipses and planetary conjunctions for inclusion in an ephemeris for the year of 1792.[4][28][32] He placed the ephemeris and its subsequent revisions in a six-year series of almanacs that printers agreed to publish and sell.[28][32] The almanacs, some of which appeared in several editions during the same year, were printed in at least six cities in four states: Baltimore; Philadelphia; Wilmington, Delaware; Alexandria, Virginia; Petersburg, Virginia; and Richmond, Virginia.[28][32][44][45][46][47][48][49]
The title page of a Baltimore edition of Banneker's 1792 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris stated that the publication contained:
the Motions of the Sun and Moon, the True Places and Aspects of the Planets, the Rising and Setting of the Sun, Place and Age of the Moon, &c. – The Lunations, Conjunctions, Eclipses, Judgment of the Weather, Festivals, and other remarkable Days; Days for holding the Supreme and Circuit Courts of the United States, as also the useful Courts in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Also – several useful Tables, and valuable Receipts. – Various Selections from the Commonplace–Book of the Kentucky Philosopher, an American Sage; with interesting and entertaining Essays, in Prose and Verse –the whole comprising a greater, more pleasing, and useful Variety than any Work of the Kind and Price in North America.[44][50]
In addition to the information that its title page described, the almanac contained a tide table for the Chesapeake Bay region. That edition and others listed times for high water or high tide at Cape Charles and Point Lookout, Virginia, Annapolis and Baltimore, Maryland and other locations.[4][52] The title page of a Baltimore edition of his 1795 almanac had a woodcut portrait of him as he may have appeared, but which a writer later concluded was more likely a portrayal of an idealized African American youth.[51][53]
A Philadelphia edition of Banneker's 1795 almanac contained a lengthy account of a yellow fever epidemic that had struck that city in 1793 (see 1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic). Written by a committee whose president was the city's mayor, Matthew Clarkson, the account related the presumed origins and causes of the epidemic, as well as the extent and duration of the event.[54]
The almanacs' editors prefaced the publications with adulatory references to Banneker and his race.[32][55] Editions of his 1792 and 1793 almanacs contained copies of a lengthy commendation that James McHenry,[56] a signer of the United States Constitution and self-described friend of Banneker, had written in August 1791.[57]
The introduction to a 1795 Philadelphia edition contained a poem entitled: "Addressed to Benjamin Banneker".[58][59] The verse began and ended:
Fain would the muse exalt her tuneful lays,
And chant in strains sublime Banneker's praise;
Fain would the soar on Fame's majestic wing,
Thy genius, great Banneker, to sing;
Thy talents and thy greatness would I shew,
Not in applausive strains to thee undue;
..............
Long may thou live an evidence to shew,
That Afric's sable race have talents too.
And may thy genius bright its strength retain;
Tho' nature to decline may still remain;
And may favour us to thy latest years
With thy Ephemeris call'd Banneker's.
A work which ages yet unborn shall name
And be the monument of lasting fame;
A work which after ages shall adore,
When Banneker, alas! shall be no more! [58]
The writer of a tribute in a 1796 Baltimore edition quoted a quatrain[60] and amended another[61] that an Englishman, Thomas Gray, had placed in a popular poem first published in 1751 (see Adaptations and parodies of Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard).[62][63] The revised rhyme stated:
Nor you ye proud, impute to these the blame
If Afric's sons to genius are unknown,
For Banneker has prov'd they may acquire a name,
As bright, as lasting, as your own.[62][64]
Supported by Andrew, George and Elias Ellicott and heavily promoted by the Society for the Promotion of the Abolition of Slavery of Maryland and of Pennsylvania, the early editions of the almanacs achieved commercial success.[26][28][32] After these editions were published, William Wilberforce, William Pitt, Charles James Fox and other prominent abolitionists praised Banneker and his works in the British House of Commons.[26][28][32]
In 1796, Banneker gave a manuscript of one of his almanacs to Suzanna Mason, a member of the Ellicott family who was visiting his home.[65] In 1836, Mason's daughter wrote a published memoir of her mother's life, letters and manuscripts.[66] The memoir contained a copy of a poem that Mason had sent to Banneker shortly after her 1796 visit.[67] A portion of the verse stated:
But thou, a man exhalted high,
Conspicuous in the world's keen eye,
On record now thy name's enrolled,
And future ages will be told,
There lived a man called Banneker,
An African astronomer.[68]
Banneker's journals
Banneker kept a series of journals that contained his notebooks for astronomical observations, his diary and accounts of his dreams.[28][69] The journals, only one of which escaped a fire on the day of his funeral, additionally contained a number of mathematical calculations and puzzles.[28][69][70] The surviving journal described in April 1800 his recollections of the 1749, 1766 and 1783 emergences of Brood X of the seventeen-year periodical cicada, Magicicada septendecim, and stated that ".... they may be expected again in the year 1800, which is Seventeen years since their third appearance to me."[71] The journal also recorded Banneker's observations on the hives and behavior of honey bees.[72]
Political views
A Philadelphia edition of Banneker's 1793 almanac contained copies of pleas for peace that the English anti-slavery poet William Cowper and others had authored, as well as anti-slavery speeches and writings from England and America. The latter included extracts from speeches that William Pitt and Charles James Fox had given to the British House of Commons in 1792, an extract from a 1789 poem by an English Quaker, Thomas Wilkinson,[73] and an extract from a query in Thomas Jefferson's 1787 Notes on the State of Virginia.[45][74]"
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Benjamin Banneker: The Sable Genius (Short Documentary)
Paul Ocone & Evelyn Polzin's National History Day documentary on Benjamin Banneker. National History Day Semi-Finalist Winner: Central Maryland District Hist...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on October 9, 1806, Benjamin Banneker, African American astronomer, mathematician and surveyor of Washington D.C., died at the age of 74.
Image: Benjamin Banneker Mathematician and Clock he designed
Background from bnl.gov/bera/activities/globe/banneker.htm
"Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)
Without Benjamin Banneker, our nation's capital would not exist as we know it. After a year of work, the Frenchman hired by George Washington to design the capital, L'Enfant, stormed off the job, taking all the plans. Banneker, placed on the planning committee at Thomas Jefferson's request, saved the project by reproducing from memory, in two days, a complete layout of the streets, parks, and major buildings. Thus Washington, D.C. itself can be considered a monument to the genius of this great man.
Banneker's English grandmother immigrated to the Baltimore area and married one of her slaves, named Bannaky. Later, their daughter did likewise, and gave birth to Benjamin in 1731. Since by law, free/slave status depended on the mother, Banneker, like his mother, was---technically---free.
Banneker attended an elementary school run by Quakers (one of the few "color-blind" communities of that time); in fact, he later adopted many Quaker habits and ideas. As a young man, he was given a pocket-watch by a business associate: this inspired Banneker to create his own clock, made entirely of wood (1753). Famous as the first clock built in the New World, it kept perfect time for forty years.
During the Revolutionary War, wheat grown on a farm designed by Banneker helped save the fledgling U.S. troops from starving. After the War, Banneker took up astronomy: in 1789, he successfully predicted an eclipse. From 1792 to 1802, Banneker published an annual Farmer's Almanac, for which he did all the calculations himself.
The Almanac won Banneker fame as far away as England and France. He used his reputation to promote social change: namely, to eliminate racism and war. He sent a copy of his first Almanac to Thomas Jefferson, with a letter protesting that the man who declared that "all men are created equal" owned slaves. Jefferson responded with enthusiastic words, but no political reform. Similarly, Banneker's attempts "to inspire a veneration for human life and an horror for war" fell mainly on deaf ears.
But Banneker's reputation was never in doubt. He spent his last years as an internationally known polymath: farmer, engineer, surveyor, city planner, astronomer, mathematician, inventor, author, and social critic. He died on October 25, 1806. Today, Banneker does not have the reputation he should, although the entire world could still learn from his words: "Ah, why will men forget that they are brethren?"
Banneker's life is inspirational. Despite the popular prejudices of his times, the man was quite unwilling to let his race or his age hinder in any way his thirst for intellectual development.
________________________________________
Benjamin Banneker, known as the first African-American man of science, was born in 1731 in Ellicott's Mills, Md. His maternal grandmother was a white Englishwoman who came to this country, bought two slaves and then liberated and married one of them; their daughter, who also married a slave, was Banneker's mother.
From the beginning, Banneker, who was taught reading and religion by his grandmother and who attended one of the first integrated schools, showed a great propensity for mathematics and an astounding mechanical ability. Later, when he was forced to leave school to work the family farm, he continued to be an avid reader.
Although he had no previous training, when he was only 22 he invented a wooden clock that kept accurate time throughout his life. According to "Gay & Lesbian Biography," Banneker "applied his natural mechanical and mathematical abilities to diagrams of wheels and gears, and converted these into three-dimensional wooden clock-parts he carved with a knife." People from all over came to see the clock.
In 1773 he began making astronomical calculations for almanacs, and in the spring of 1789 he accurately predicted a solar eclipse; that same year, he was the first African-American appointed to the President's Capital Commission.
He never married and is not known to have had any liaisons with women. In one of his early essays he stated that poverty, disease and violence are more tolerable than the "pungent stings ... which guilty passions dart into the heart," causing some historians to view him as most probably homosexual. According to "Gay & Lesbian Biography," Banneker's "self-isolation and love of drink is sometimes cited as at least a partial explanation for his lifelong bachelorhood. But his grandmother, parents, and sisters were known to be people of considerable Christian dominance, and he always lived under their supervision." Also, as he grew older, Banneker daily read the Bible, the teachings of which may have helped quash any gay tendencies.
A self-taught surveyor, in 1789 he was called on to assist George Ellicott and Pierre Charles L'Enfant in laying out what would become the nation's capital.
In 1790, he sold his farm and spent the rest of his life publishing his works on astronomy, mathematics and the abolition of slavery. At the end of 1791, Banneker was publishing his almanac, greatly admired by then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson; the almanac was sent to Paris for inclusion at the Academy of Sciences. Once the almanac's publication was assured, Banneker, having previously corresponded with Jefferson on the intellectual quality of African-Americans, began a correspondence with him on the subject of the abolition of slavery.
Toward the end of his life, he produced a dissertation on bees, a study of locust-plague cycles and more letters on segregationist trends in America. He died at age 75 in Boston in 1806. In 1980, the U.S. Post Office issued a Black Heritage commemorative stamp in his honor."
Benjamin Banneker: The Sable Genius (Short Documentary)
"Paul Ocone & Evelyn Polzin's National History Day documentary on Benjamin Banneker.
National History Day Semi-Finalist"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucjoP0X362o
FYI Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown 1stSgt Eugene Harless CW5 John M. MSG Andrew White SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Michael Thorin SGT Robert George SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SP5 Robert Ruck SPC Margaret Higgins Maj Marty Hogan SSgt Brian Brakke Sgt Arthur Caesar SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
Image: Benjamin Banneker Mathematician and Clock he designed
Background from bnl.gov/bera/activities/globe/banneker.htm
"Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)
Without Benjamin Banneker, our nation's capital would not exist as we know it. After a year of work, the Frenchman hired by George Washington to design the capital, L'Enfant, stormed off the job, taking all the plans. Banneker, placed on the planning committee at Thomas Jefferson's request, saved the project by reproducing from memory, in two days, a complete layout of the streets, parks, and major buildings. Thus Washington, D.C. itself can be considered a monument to the genius of this great man.
Banneker's English grandmother immigrated to the Baltimore area and married one of her slaves, named Bannaky. Later, their daughter did likewise, and gave birth to Benjamin in 1731. Since by law, free/slave status depended on the mother, Banneker, like his mother, was---technically---free.
Banneker attended an elementary school run by Quakers (one of the few "color-blind" communities of that time); in fact, he later adopted many Quaker habits and ideas. As a young man, he was given a pocket-watch by a business associate: this inspired Banneker to create his own clock, made entirely of wood (1753). Famous as the first clock built in the New World, it kept perfect time for forty years.
During the Revolutionary War, wheat grown on a farm designed by Banneker helped save the fledgling U.S. troops from starving. After the War, Banneker took up astronomy: in 1789, he successfully predicted an eclipse. From 1792 to 1802, Banneker published an annual Farmer's Almanac, for which he did all the calculations himself.
The Almanac won Banneker fame as far away as England and France. He used his reputation to promote social change: namely, to eliminate racism and war. He sent a copy of his first Almanac to Thomas Jefferson, with a letter protesting that the man who declared that "all men are created equal" owned slaves. Jefferson responded with enthusiastic words, but no political reform. Similarly, Banneker's attempts "to inspire a veneration for human life and an horror for war" fell mainly on deaf ears.
But Banneker's reputation was never in doubt. He spent his last years as an internationally known polymath: farmer, engineer, surveyor, city planner, astronomer, mathematician, inventor, author, and social critic. He died on October 25, 1806. Today, Banneker does not have the reputation he should, although the entire world could still learn from his words: "Ah, why will men forget that they are brethren?"
Banneker's life is inspirational. Despite the popular prejudices of his times, the man was quite unwilling to let his race or his age hinder in any way his thirst for intellectual development.
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Benjamin Banneker, known as the first African-American man of science, was born in 1731 in Ellicott's Mills, Md. His maternal grandmother was a white Englishwoman who came to this country, bought two slaves and then liberated and married one of them; their daughter, who also married a slave, was Banneker's mother.
From the beginning, Banneker, who was taught reading and religion by his grandmother and who attended one of the first integrated schools, showed a great propensity for mathematics and an astounding mechanical ability. Later, when he was forced to leave school to work the family farm, he continued to be an avid reader.
Although he had no previous training, when he was only 22 he invented a wooden clock that kept accurate time throughout his life. According to "Gay & Lesbian Biography," Banneker "applied his natural mechanical and mathematical abilities to diagrams of wheels and gears, and converted these into three-dimensional wooden clock-parts he carved with a knife." People from all over came to see the clock.
In 1773 he began making astronomical calculations for almanacs, and in the spring of 1789 he accurately predicted a solar eclipse; that same year, he was the first African-American appointed to the President's Capital Commission.
He never married and is not known to have had any liaisons with women. In one of his early essays he stated that poverty, disease and violence are more tolerable than the "pungent stings ... which guilty passions dart into the heart," causing some historians to view him as most probably homosexual. According to "Gay & Lesbian Biography," Banneker's "self-isolation and love of drink is sometimes cited as at least a partial explanation for his lifelong bachelorhood. But his grandmother, parents, and sisters were known to be people of considerable Christian dominance, and he always lived under their supervision." Also, as he grew older, Banneker daily read the Bible, the teachings of which may have helped quash any gay tendencies.
A self-taught surveyor, in 1789 he was called on to assist George Ellicott and Pierre Charles L'Enfant in laying out what would become the nation's capital.
In 1790, he sold his farm and spent the rest of his life publishing his works on astronomy, mathematics and the abolition of slavery. At the end of 1791, Banneker was publishing his almanac, greatly admired by then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson; the almanac was sent to Paris for inclusion at the Academy of Sciences. Once the almanac's publication was assured, Banneker, having previously corresponded with Jefferson on the intellectual quality of African-Americans, began a correspondence with him on the subject of the abolition of slavery.
Toward the end of his life, he produced a dissertation on bees, a study of locust-plague cycles and more letters on segregationist trends in America. He died at age 75 in Boston in 1806. In 1980, the U.S. Post Office issued a Black Heritage commemorative stamp in his honor."
Benjamin Banneker: The Sable Genius (Short Documentary)
"Paul Ocone & Evelyn Polzin's National History Day documentary on Benjamin Banneker.
National History Day Semi-Finalist"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucjoP0X362o
FYI Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown 1stSgt Eugene Harless CW5 John M. MSG Andrew White SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Michael Thorin SGT Robert George SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SP5 Robert Ruck SPC Margaret Higgins Maj Marty Hogan SSgt Brian Brakke Sgt Arthur Caesar SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
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