Benjamin Banneker, a free African American, was mathematician, astronomer, and land surveyor. He is most well-known for his annual series of almanacs, which he published from 1792 to 1797, along with his correspondence with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson regarding the issues of slavery and inequality.
Early Life
Benjamin Banneker was born on November 9, 1731. While he briefly attended a small Quaker school near his family’s tobacco farm near Baltimore, Maryland, he was largely self-educated.
At about the age of 21, Banneker reportedly built a wooden clock, which he modeled after a pocket watch, that accurately kept time. In 1771, the Ellicott’s, a Quaker family from Pennsylvania, established a gristmill near Banneker’s tobacco farm. They befriended Banneker and helped him pursue his study of math and astronomy. In 1789, he forecasted his first eclipse.
Work in Astronomy, Surveying and Almanacs
In 1790, Banneker’s relationship to the Ellicott’s led to an opportunity to help survey for the construction of a new federal city in what would become Washington, D.C. An article about the survey in the Georgetown Weekly Ledger praised Banneker’s abilities: “[Ellicott] is attended by Benjamin Banneker, an Ethiopian, whose abilities, as a surveyor, and an astronomer, clearly prove that Mr. Jefferson’s concluding that race of men were void of mental endowments, was without foundation.”
Upon returning to his Maryland farm, Banneker wrote and published annual almanacs between 1792 and 1797. The handbooks, which contained his own astronomical calculations along with historical accounts, literature, and tidal information, were incredibly well-received. Banneker used the success of his almanacs to demonstrate that blacks were not intellectually inferior to whites.
Banneker directly challenged the inequality facing African Americans in a letter to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was a large slave owner. In his letter, which Banneker sent along with a copy of his almanac, Banneker questioned how Jefferson would advocate for independence from British rule while also enslaving people blacks. Banneker called on Jefferson to recognize African Americans as more than slaves, imploring him to “readily embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions which so generally prevail with respect to us.” While Jefferson returned his correspondence and commended his almanac, he did not commit to any political changes.
Later Life
Banneker died on October 9, 1806, at his farm in Oella. Shortly after his death, his house caught fire and much of his work was lost. In the absence of written records documenting his accomplishments, many myths have arisen regarding Banneker. While he led a remarkable life, he is also often erroneously credited with drawing the street grid of Washington, D.C., building the first clock on the East Coast, being the first professional astronomer in America, and discovering the seventeen-year birth cycle of cicadas.
