Image: Benjamin Banneker
On this day in history, the accomplished American mathematician and astronomer Benjamin Banneker wrote a letter to then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson communicates prolifically with luminaries from around the world. Still, Banneker is unique among them: the son of a free Black American woman and a formerly enslaved African man from Guinea, Banneker criticizes Jefferson’s hypocritical stance on slavery in respectful but unambiguous terms, using Jefferson’s own words to make his case for the abolition of slavery.
History Daily: 365 Fascinating Happenings Volume 1 & Volume 2 – August 19, 1791
Benjamin Banneker was a self-educated scientist, astronomer, inventor, writer, and anti-enslavement publicist. He built a striking clock from wood, published a farmers’ almanac, and actively campaigned against enslavement. He was among the first African Americans to gain distinction for achievements in science.
Banneker was born in Ellicott City, Maryland, on November 9, 1731. Although born a free man, he was the descendant of enslaved people. At that time, the law dictated that if your mother was enslaved, you were enslaved, and if she was a free woman, then you were free. Banneker’s grandmother, Molly Walsh, was a bi-racial English immigrant and an indentured servant who married an enslaved African named Banna Ka, who had been brought to the American Colonies by a trader of enslaved people. Molly had worked seven years as an indentured servant before she purchased and labored on her small farm. Molly Walsh purchased her future husband, Banna Ka, and another African person to work on her farm. The name Banna Ka was later modified to Bannaky and then switched to Banneker. Benjamin’s mother, Mary Banneker, was born free. Benjamin’s father, Roger, was a formerly enslaved person who had bought his freedom before marrying Mary.
Quakers educated Banneker, but most of his education was self-taught. He quickly showed the world his genius and first attained national recognition for his scientific efforts in the 1791 surveying of the Federal Territory (now Washington, D.C.). In 1753, he constructed a wooden pocket watch, one of the first in America. Twenty years later, Banneker began making astronomical calculations that enabled him to forecast a 1789 solar eclipse successfully. His estimate, made well before the celestial event, contradicted the predictions of better-known mathematicians and astronomers.
Banneker’s mechanical and mathematical abilities impressed many people, including Thomas Jefferson, who encountered Banneker after George Elliot had endorsed him for the surveying team that laid out Washington, D.C.
Banneker was best known for his six annual farmers’ almanacs, published between 1792 and 1797. Banneker began compiling the Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac and Ephemeris in his free time. The almanacs included knowledge about medicines and medical treatment and listed tides, eclipses, and astronomical data, all calculated by Banneker himself.
On August 19, 1791, Banneker sent Jefferson, well-known as a Founding Father and a scientist, a draft of an almanac he was readying for publication. He felt driven to include a personal note. In this letter, Banneker quoted the preamble to the Declaration of Independence (“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”) and stated quite directly that he was disappointed in the hypocrisy of Jefferson, a slaveowner:
“…but Sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that although you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of those rights and privileges which he had conferred upon them, that you should at the Same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the Same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves.”
Jefferson responded eleven days later in a cordial and complimentary way, but he was condescending and racist as well. Jefferson applauded the almanac and told Banneker that he was forwarding it to the Marquis de Condorcet, a French philosopher, mathematician, and abolitionist. The future president praised Banneker as an asset to the Black race, basically telling him that he considered the almanac confirmation that African Americans’ inadequacies were beholden “merely to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa and America” and not their natural inferiority. This paternalistic sentiment was a constant topic of debate among whites.
After Banneker’s death, Jefferson expressed doubt that a Black man could have written the almanac. He continued to own enslaved workers, despite decrying slavery in some of his writings, until he died in 1826. Shortly after the letters were written, a Philadelphia publisher circulated a pamphlet containing Banneker’s persuasive and articulate argument for abolition and Jefferson’s evasive response, which made the rounds among the emerging abolitionist movement. Contrary to the legend that slavery was universally accepted among educated and elite circles in the early United States, Banneker’s letter proves that one of the nation’s founders received first-hand criticism of his hypocritical and contradictory stance on slavery in his lifetime.
ON SALE NOW!!!
History Daily: 365 Fascinating Happenings Volume 1
In the United States:
In Canada:
Subscribe to History Daily with Francis Chappell Black to never miss a daily post.
History Daily With Francis Chappell Black 
Leave a comment