Benjamin Banneker

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.

Bibliography:

"A Few Black Gay or Bisexual Men and Women Who Changed the World'' by Aslan Brooke

Further reading:

The definitive biography of Benjamin Banneker is: The Life of Benjamin Banneker, by Silvio
A. Bedini. Rancho Cordova, California: Landmark Enterprises, 1984 (originally published in
1972 by Charles Scribner's Sons).

For further information on Benjamin Banneker, see Black Pioneers of Science and

Invention, by Louis Haber [New York, 1970], chapter 1 and p. 168-69 (bibliography); or, if
possible, visit the Maryland Historical Society's Banneker-Douglass Museum.

Born: November 9, 1731 

Baltimore County, Maryland 
Died: October 9, 1806 
Baltimore County, Maryland 
African American scientist and inventor
From 1792 through 1797 Benjamin Banneker, an African American mathematician and
amateur astronomer, calculated ephemerides (tables of the locations of stars and
planets) for almanacs that were widely distributed and influential. Because of these
works, Banneker became one of the most famous African Americans in early U.S.
history.

Early life
On November 9, 1731, Benjamin Banneker was born in Baltimore County, Maryland. He
was the son of an African slave named Robert, who had bought his own freedom, and
of Mary Banneky, who was the daughter of an Englishwoman and a free African slave.
Benjamin grew up on his father's farm with three sisters. After learning to read from his
mother and grandmother, Benjamin read the bible to his family in the evening. He
attended a nearby Quaker country school for several seasons, but this was the extent of
his formal education. He later taught himself literature, history, and mathematics, and he
enjoyed reading.
As he grew into an adult, Banneker inherited the farm left to him by his grandparents.
He expanded the already successful farm, where he grew tobacco. In 1761, at the age
of thirty, Banneker constructed a striking wooden clock without having ever seen a clock
before (although he had examined a pocket watch). He painstakingly carved the toothed
wheels and gears of the clock out of seasoned wood. The clock operated successfully
until the time of his death.
Interest in astronomy
At the age of fifty-eight Banneker became interested in astronomy (the study of the
universe) through the influence of a neighbor, George Ellicott, who lent him several
books on the subject as well as a telescope and drafting instruments (tools used in
astronomy). Without further guidance or assistance, Banneker taught himself the
science of astronomy. He made projections for solar (of the Sun) and lunar (of the
Moon) eclipses and computed ephemerides for an almanac. In 1791 Banneker was
unable to sell his observations, but these rejections did not stop his studies.
In February 1791 Major Andrew Ellicott (1754–1820), an American surveyor (one who
maps out new lands for development), was appointed to survey the 10-mile square of
the Federal Territory for a new national capital. Banneker worked in the field for several
months as Ellicott's scientific assistant. After the base lines and boundaries had been
established and Banneker had returned home, he prepared an ephemeris for the
following year, which was published in Baltimore in Benjamin Banneker's Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris, for the Year of Our Lord,
1792; Being Bissextile, or Leap-Year, and the Sixteenth Year of American
Independence. Banneker's calculations would give the positions of the planets and
stars for each day of the year, and his almanacs were published every year from 1792
until 1797.

Communications with Thomas Jefferson

Banneker forwarded a copy of his calculations to Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), then
secretary of state, with a letter criticizing Jefferson for his proslavery views and urging
the abolishment (ending) of slavery of African American people. He compared such
slavery to the enslavement of the American colonies by the British crown. Jefferson

Benjamin Banneker. 
Reproduced by permission of
Fisk University Library
.

acknowledged Banneker's letter and forwarded it to the Marquis de Condorcet, the

secretary of the Académie des Sciences in Paris. The exchange of letters between
Banneker and Jefferson was published as a separate pamphlet, and was given wide
publicity at the time the first almanac was published. The two letters were reprinted in
Banneker's almanac for 1793, which also included "A Plan for an Office of Peace,"
which was the work of Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745–1813). The abolition societies of
Maryland and Pennsylvania were very helpful in the publication of Banneker's
almanacs, which were widely distributed as an example of an African American's work
and to demonstrate the equal mental abilities of the races.
The last known issue of Banneker's almanacs appeared for the year 1797, because of
lessening interest in the antislavery movement. Nevertheless, he prepared ephemerides
for each year until 1804. He also published a treatise (a formal writing) on bees and
computed the cycle of the seventeen-year locust.
 Banneker never married. He died on October 9, 1806, and was buried in the family
burial ground near his house. Among the memorabilia preserved from his life were his
commonplace book and the manuscript journal in which he had entered astronomical
calculations and personal notations. Writers who described his achievements as that of
the first African American scientist have kept Banneker's memory alive. Recent studies
have proven Banneker's status as an extremely capable mathematician and amateur
astronomer.

Benjamin Banneker
AMERICAN SCIENTIST

WRITTEN BY: 

 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

LAST UPDATED: Nov 5, 2018 See Article History

Benjamin Banneker, (born November 9, 1731, Banneky farm [now in

Oella], Maryland [U.S.]—died October 19? [see Researcher’s Note], 1806,
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.), mathematician, astronomer, compiler of
almanacs, inventor, and writer, one of the first important African
American intellectuals.
Banneker, a freeman, was raised on a farm near Baltimore that he would
eventually inherit from his father. Although he periodically attended a one-
room Quaker schoolhouse, Banneker was largely self-educated and did much
of his learning through the voracious reading of borrowed books. Early on he
demonstrated a particular facility for mathematics. While still a young man
(probably about age 20), he built a wooden clock that kept precise time.
Banneker was encouraged in the study of astronomyby George Ellicott, a
Quaker and amateur astronomer whose family owned nearby mills. As early
as 1788, Banneker began to make astronomical calculations, and he
accurately predicted a solar eclipse that occurred in 1789. In 1791, while
working with Andrew Ellicott and others in surveying the land that would
become Washington, D.C., Banneker made other astronomical observations.
As an essayist and pamphleteer, Banneker opposed slavery and
advocated civil rights. In 1791 he sent Thomas Jefferson, then U.S. secretary
of state, a letter asking Jefferson’s aid in bringing about better conditions for
African Americans. With the letter, Banneker also sent a handwritten copy of
the manuscript for his 1792 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia
Almanac and Ephemers, which he continued to publish annually through
1797.
 Mathematician and Astronomer Benjamin
Banneker Was Born 
November 9, 1731 
What do you see when you look at the stars?
Benjamin Banneker saw astronomical patterns from
which he could make calculations and predictions. A
mathematician and astronomer, Benjamin Banneker
was born on November 9, 1731, in Ellicott's Mills,
Maryland.

Largely self-taught, Banneker was one of the first

African Americans to gain distinction in science. His
significant accomplishments include the successful
prediction of a solar eclipse, publishing his own
almanac, and the surveying of Washington, D.C.
Banneker spent most of his life on his family's 100-
acre farm outside Baltimore. There, he taught
himself astronomy by watching the stars and learned
advanced mathematics from borrowed textbooks. 

 page 1 of 3 
Mathematician and Astronomer Benjamin Banneker Was Born 
November 9, 1731 
In 1752, Banneker attracted attention by building a clock entirely out of wood.
The first ever built in America, it kept precise time for decades. Twenty years
later, Banneker again caused a stir, when he successfully forecast a 1789
solar eclipse. His correct prediction contradicted those of better-known
mathematicians and astronomers. Banneker's abilities impressed many
people, including Thomas Jefferson, who recommended him for the surveying
team that laid out Washington, D.C., making it the monumental capital it is
today.

In his free time, Banneker wrote the Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and

Virginia Almanac and Ephemeris. The almanac included information on
medicines and medical treatment, and listed tides, astronomical information,
and eclipses calculated by Banneker himself. He published the journal
annually from 1791 to 1802. 
This plan of the city of Washington, D.C., from 1791 shows Banneker's work as surveyor of our country's
capital

Mathematician and Astronomer Benjamin Banneker Was Born 

November 9, 1731 
On August 19, 1791, Banneker sent a copy of his first almanac to Thomas
Jefferson, then secretary of state. In an enclosed letter, he questioned the
slave owner's sincerity as a "friend to liberty." He urged Jefferson to help get
rid of "absurd and false ideas" that one race is superior to another. He wished
Jefferson's sentiments to be the same as his, that "one Universal Father . . .
afforded us all the same sensations and endowed us all with the same
faculties." Jefferson responded with praise for Banneker's accomplishments. 

Banneker and Jefferson's correspondence reveals Jefferson's contradictions when it comes to slavery
Banneker, Benjamin
Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography 
COPYRIGHT 2008 Charles Scribner's Sons

BANNEKER, BENJAMIN

(B. Baltimore County, Maryland, 9 November 1731; d. Baltimore

County, 9 October 1806)

Observational astronomy, ephemerides, almanacs.

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A tobacco farmer, and amateur astronomer, Benjamin

Banneker was an inspiration for his mathematical achievements. He
is frequently described as the first African American man of science.

Early Life. Banneker was born free in Baltimore County, Maryland,

on 9 November 1731. He was the son of a freed slave from Guinea
named Robert and of Mary Banneky, daughter of a formerly
indentured English servant named Molly Welsh and her husband,
Bannka, a slave whom she freed and who claimed to be the son of
a Gold Coast tribal chief.

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Banneker’s early years were spent with his family, including three
sisters, growing tobacco on his parents’ 100-acre farm near the
banks of the Patapsco River. In his early years he had been trained
to read and write by his grandmother by means of a Bible she had
purchased from England, but his only formal schooling was
attendance for a week or two in a nearby Quaker one-room
schoolhouse. Benjamin became a voracious reader, borrowing
books from wherever he could, and developed considerable skill in
mathematics. He enjoyed devising mathematical puzzles and
solving those brought to him by others. At about the age of twenty-
one he constructed a striking wall clock, without ever having seen
one. It is said that it was based on his recollections of the
mechanism of a pocket watch. Apparently, he visualized it as a
mathematical puzzle, relating the numerous toothed wheels and
gears, carving each carefully from seasoned hardwood with a
pocket knife. For a bell, he utilized either part of a glass bottle or
metal container. The timepiece appears to have been the first clock
in the region and brought those who had heard about it to his cabin
to observe it and listen to it strike. The clock continued to function
successfully for more than fifty years, until his death.
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Inheriting the family farm at his father’s death, Banneker lived with
his mother until her demise. Then living alone, he continued to grow
and sell tobacco until about the age of fifty-nine, when rheumatism
forced him to retire. His farm made him virtually self-sufficient, with
a productive vegetable garden, thriving fruit orchards, and several
hives of bees that he maintained. Banneker and his family had been
among the first clients of the newly established Ellicott Store, in
nearby Ellicott’s Lower Mills, and during his leisure he continued to
visit it frequently, purchasing small items he required, perusing the
wealth of imported merchandise, occasionally purchasing an
inexpensive book for his own small library. Most of all he enjoyed
the opportunity to read newspapers from other cities that the store
sold and that provided him with a link to the outer world.

Now, with the freedom of retirement from work, Banneker turned

with new vigor to his astronomical studies, often whiling away the
hours until dawn scanning the night skies with his telescope and
recording notations for an ephemeris for an almanac he was
compiling for the following year.

Work in Observational Astronomy. It was just at this time that fate

sought him out for an important role to play in the nation’s history.
The surveyor Andrew Ellicott had recently been appointed by
President George Washington to produce a survey of selected
lands on which to establish a national capital. Ellicott urgently
required an assistant with some knowledge of astronomy to work in
the field observation tent during the night hours. He traveled to
Ellicott’s Lower Mills hoping to hire his cousin George Ellicott,
Banneker’s neighbor, who was an amateur astronomer. However,
his cousin, being unable to leave his own work, instead
recommended Banneker, whom he felt had become sufficiently
informed on the subject to fulfill the position. Banneker was hired
and, overwhelmed by the opportunity, he traveled together with
Andrew Ellicott to the site that was to become the national capital,
arriving early in the new year of 1791.

Banneker worked in the observatory tent for more than four months,
from the beginning of February until the end of April 1791. It was
grueling work, for he was forced to spend the long hours of the night
lying on his back in order to use an instrument called a zenith
sector. His assignment was to observe through the instrument’s
telescope as stars transited over the zenith, noting the exact
moment of each star’s transit and recording it for Ellicott’s use when
he arrived the next morning.
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It was extremely tiring work for a man of Banneker’s advanced

years, but despite the discomfort, he derived considerable pleasure
and pride from the knowledge that he was contributing to such an
important project. Also, after taking a nap during the early daylight
hours, Banneker had the privilege of using Ellicott’s astronomical
textbooks, which were maintained in the observatory tent. This
enabled him to complete the ephemeris he was compiling for an
almanac for the following year, 1792. For his participation on the
survey, including travel, Banneker was paid a total of $60.

Correspondence with Jefferson. Soon after returning home,

Banneker sent a handwritten copy of his completed ephemeris
to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson because, as he wrote,
Jefferson was considered to be “measurably friendly and well
disposed towards us,” referring to the African American race, “who
have long laboured under the abuse and censure of the world. …
And have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt, and …
long have been considered rather as brutish than human, and
scarcely able of mental endowments (1792).”

Submitting his calculations as evidence to the contrary, Banneker

urged Jefferson to work toward bringing an end to slavery. Jefferson
answered promptly:

No body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit,

that nature has given our black brethren, talents equal to those of
other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is
owed merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in
Africa & in America. … No body wishes more ardently to see a
good system commenced for raising the condition of both their body
& 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. (Payne, 1862, pp. 168–171)

Jefferson was so impressed with Banneker’s calculations that he

sent a copy to the Marquis de Condorcet, secretary of the French
Academy of Sciences in Paris, with an enthusiastic cover letter. No
reply was forthcoming from Condorcet, however, because at just the
time of the arrival of Jefferson’s letter, the French diplomat had
been forced to go into hiding for opposing the monarchy and for
having supported a republican form of government. During the
following year, the two letters, the one from Banneker to Jefferson
and the statesman’s reply, were published in the United States in a
widely distributed pamphlet and in at least one periodical.
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Publication of the Almanac. James McHenry, a senator from

Maryland, had been so impressed with Banneker’s almanac
manuscript that he wrote an endorsement for it that was published
together with the almanac by the Baltimore printer Goddard &
Angell. The almanac bore the title Benjamin Banneker’s
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanack and
Ephemeris for the Year of Our Lord 1792. In addition to its sales in
Baltimore, the almanac was made available also by printers in
Alexandria, Virginia, and in Philadelphia. It proved an immediate
success, and Banneker’s lifestyle soon changed somewhat, as he
became acknowledged by neighbors and occasionally by others
visiting the region.

During the next five years, Banneker continued to calculate

ephemerides, which he sold and which were published in almanacs
bearing his name in the title. Promoted by the abolitionist societies
of both Pennsylvania and Maryland, Banneker’s almanacs were
published by several printers and sold widely in the United
States and also in England. Twenty-eight separate editions of his
almanacs are known to have been published.

Generally, in the production of an almanac, the astronomer provided

only the ephemeris, and the remaining content was selected and
furnished by the printer, who often selected random prose and
poetry taken from the published press or journals. Frequently
included were useful tables of weights and measures, coinages,
interest rates and scales of depreciation, measurements of roads,
and distances of cities from the place of publication, a calendar of
meetings of courts of law holding sessions where the almanacs
would be sold, and so forth.
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The remainder of the pages of these inexpensive and poorly printed

pamphlets generally were filled with moral elevating scriptural
quotations, proverbs, allegorical stories, and puritanical essays. By
the beginning of the eighteenth century, however, the almanac’s
content changed distinctly in tone from its earlier religious bias to
one of more practical considerations, with emphasis on education
and literary and historical content. As a consequence, in time the
almanac became more entertaining, with homely wisdom cast in
contemporary language. By the end of the eighteenth century, the
publication had become the most common printed item in the
American republic, printed in every state, each vying with others in
developing a new marketable item. In the period that Banneker was
undertaking the preparation of an ephemeris, the century was
drawing to a close and once more the almanac content was
undergoing a change, with new emphasis on local causes and
national events.
In a period when clocks and watches were luxuries and common
timepieces consisted primarily of time glasses and sundials,
information about the times of sunrise, noon, and sunset were of
considerable importance to the prospective purchaser, as well as
the phases of the moon, eclipses, and conjunction. Among the most
desirable and useful features of Banneker’s almanacs proved to be
a tide table for the Chesapeake Bay region, which made his
almanacs particularly desirable for river pilots, fishermen, and
others living near and making their living on the water. It listed times
for high water or high tide at Cape Charles, Point Lookout,
Annapolis, and Baltimore. Why Banneker’s competitors ignored this
feature is hard to understand, because it was simple enough to
calculate the high tide at Annapolis, for instance, which was two
hours later than at Point Lookout, while at Baltimore and Head-of-
the-Bay the high tide was five hours later than at Point Lookout. The
tide table was simplified considerably in Banneker’s almanacs for
the years 1795 and 1796, which provided data for determining tides
in ports as distant north as Halifax and Boston. This feature was
titled “Rule to find the Time of High Water in the following Places”
and consisted simply of an additive for each of the places listed, to
be combined with the day of the Moon’s age.

It was Banneker himself and not his printer who compiled the tide
tables for his almanacs. It was a simple matter to acquire the data,
and no mathematical

Achievement was involved. The changing of the tides had been

associated with the motion of the Moon for centuries. Once the time
of the highest or spring tide was known at a particular point at the
age of the full or new moon, it was a simple matter to derive a table
for each day of the month at the same place. Banneker applied the
standard daily retardation of forty-eight minutes, or four-fifths of an
hour. This determination of the highest tide waters or spring tides on
the days of the full or new moon was known as “the establishment
of the port” and generally was marked on the charts for the port in
question.

From data in his published almanacs, it is evident that Banneker

made his observations from a point of latitude 39°30’ north and a
longitude of 4 hours, 59 minutes west. In addition to recording in his
manuscript astronomical journal the ephemerides for each of the
years for which he calculated them, Banneker also included
miscellaneous exercises in mathematics and astronomy.
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In the pages of his manuscript astronomical journal as well as in his

commonplace book, Banneker occasionally recorded miscellaneous
items about unusual atmospheric phenomena he had observed.
Typical of these random notes was an entry on the very first page of
the journal, under the date of 23 December 1790. He noted, “About
3 o’clock A.M. I heard a Sound and felt the Shock like heavy
thunder I went out but could not observe any Cloud above the
Horizon. I therefore Conclude it must be a great Earth Quake in
some part of the Globe.” Another item, recorded on 4 May 1792,
described how “In a Squall from the N.W. I observed the Lower
regions of the Clouds to move Swiftly before the wind, and the
upper region Slowly against it.”

Even in his later years the weather continued to preoccupy him. On

2 February 1803, he noted,

In the morning part of the day, there arose a very dark Cloud,
followed by Snow and haile a flash of lightning and loud thunder
crack, and then the Storm abated untill after noon, when another
cloud arose the Same point, viz, Northwest with a beautiful Shower
of Snow but what beautyfyed the Snow was the brightness of the
Sun, which was near Setting at the time.
A comparison of the contents of Banneker’s published ephemerides
made with those calculated and published by his contemporaries
Ellicott, William Waring, and Mary Katherine Goddard, has revealed
that Banneker’s calculations consistently reflected an overall high
degree of comparative accuracy. An error analysis of the
astronomical data in Banneker’s almanacs revealed that his data
compared very favorably with that published by his contemporaries.
There was no significant difference between Banneker’s star data
and that published by the two contemporary almanac makers.
Although Banneker’s planetary data may have appeared to be
somewhat less accurate than that of Ellicott or Goddard, it was still
quite usable by the ordinary purchaser of the almanac. Considering
that the length and complexity of the calculations involved in
determining the rising and setting of certain stars and planets, and
realizing that this was only a small segment of the mathematics
required for one year’s almanac, one can have only the greatest
respect for this self-taught man of science.

Although Banneker continued to calculate ephemerides every year

through the year 1802, those after 1797 remained unpublished, but
were carefully recorded in his manuscript journal and commonplace
book, which survive as unique records of an eighteenth-century
almanac maker.

Character. Banneker espoused no particular religion, but as an

early biographer noted, “His life was one of constant worship in the
great temples of nature and science.” (Allen, 1921) As places of
worship in his vicinity grew in number, Banneker visited each of
them, but gave preference to the meetings of the Society of Friends,
where “he presented a most dignified aspect as he leaned in quiet
contemplation on a long staff, which he always carried after passing
his seventieth year. And he worshipped, leaning on the top of his
staff.” (Allen, 1921)
A description of Banneker was provided by Martha Tyson, daughter
of George Ellicott, who had seen him when she was a young
woman. “The countenance of Banneker,” she wrote,

Had a most benign and thoughtful expression. A fine head of white

hair surmounted his unusually broad and ample forehead, whilst the
lower part of his face was slender and sloping towards the chin. His
figure was perfectly erect, showing no inclination to stoop as he
advanced in years. His rainment was always scrupulously neat; that
for summer wear, being of unbleached linen, was beautifully
washed and ironed by his sisters. … In cold weather he dressed in
light colored cloth, a fine drab broadcloth constituting his attire when
he designed appearing in his best style.
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No known portrait of Banneker exists. Lacking such, an image

frequently used is a woodcut portrait bust of a young black man,
imaginary and not based on life, wearing the typical Quaker garb of
the period. Purported to be of Banneker, this image illustrated the
cover of a 1797 edition of one of his almanacs. The most accurate
representation known may be found on a modern mural painting by
the late William H. Smith of the survey of the federal territory. It
hangs in the Maryland House on the John F. KennedyHighway in
Aberdeen, Maryland. In 1980 the U.S. Postal Service issued a
commemorative stamp honoring Banneker based on imagined
features.

On 9 October 1806, during a nap following his usual morning walk,

Banneker quietly died in his sleep, just one month short of his
seventy-fifth birthday. In accordance with instructions he had left,
immediately following his death all the items that had been
borrowed from his neighbor George Ellicott, including the worktable,
instruments, and books, had been returned to him by Banneker’s
nephew. Included also was Banneker’s astronomical journal.

Banneker was buried two days later, on Tuesday, 11 October, in the

family burial ground within sight of his house, a few yards away.
During the services, as his body was being lowered into his grave,
the mourners were startled as they looked up to see his house, a
wooden building, suddenly burst into flame. Before help could be
summoned, the entire structure burned to the ground. All its
contents were totally destroyed, including Banneker’s clothing and
other personal possessions, a few bits of furniture, a sparse
collection of books and printed copies of his almanacs, as well as
the fabled well-worn striking clock. The only item known to have
escaped destruction was his quarto Bible, which had been removed
from his house after his death and before the funeral, probably by
one of his sisters. The cause of the conflagration was never
determined.
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Banneker’s death did not pass totally unnoticed. An obituary

announcement appeared in the Federal Gazette on 28 October
1806, almost three weeks after his death. It provided a description
of Banneker’s way of life and concluded, “Mr. Banneker is a
prominent instance to prove that a descendant of Africa is
susceptible of as great mental improvement and deep knowledge
into the mysteries of nature as that of any other nation.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY
WORK BY BANNEKER

Copy of a Letter from Benjamin Banneker to the Secretary of State,

with His Answer. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by Daniel
Lawrence, 1792.

OTHER SOURCES

Allen, Will W. Banneker, the Afro-American Astronomer.

Washington, DC, 1921.

Bedini, Silvio A. Early American Scientific Instruments and Their

Makers. Washington, DC: U.S. Museum of History and
Technology, Smithsonian Institution, 1964. See pages 22–25.

———.The Life of Benjamin Banneker: The First African-American

Man of Science. 2nd ed., revised and expanded. Baltimore:
Maryland Historical Society, 1999.

Conway, Moncure D. “Benjamin Banneker, the Negro

Astronomer.” Atlantic Monthly (January 1863): 79–84.

Kurtz, Benjamin. “The Learned Negro.” Lutheran Observer16, no.

31 (25 August 1848): 134–345.

Latrobe, John H. B. “Memoir of Benjamin Banneker: Read before

the Historical Society of Maryland.” Maryland Colonization Journal,
n.s., 2, no. 23 (May 1845): 353–364.

LePhillips, Phillip. “The Negro, Benjamin Banneker; Astronomer and

Mathematician, Plea for Universal Peace.” Records of the Columbia
Historical Society 20 (1917): 114–120.

McHenry, James. “Account of Benjamin Banneker, a Free

Negro.” Universal Asylum (November 1791).
Payne, Daniel Alexander. “A Literary Curiosity—Letter from
Benjamin Banneker to Hon. Thos. Jefferson.” Repository of Religion
and Learning and of Science and Art4, no. 7 (July 1862): 168–171.

Tyson, Martha E. A Brief Account of the Settlement of Ellicott’s

Mills, with Fragments of History therewith Connected, Written at the
Request of Evan T Ellicott, Baltimore, 1865. Baltimore, MD: Printed
by J. Murphy, 1871.

———.Banneker, the Afro-American Astronomer from the

Posthumous Papers of Martha E. Tyson. Edited by Her Daughter.
Philadelphia: Friends’ Book Association, 1884.

Silvio A. Bedini
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Banneker, Benjamin
UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography 
COPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group, Inc.

Benjamin Banneker

Born: November 9, 1731

Baltimore County, Maryland
Died: October 9, 1806
Baltimore County, Maryland 
African American scientist and inventor
From 1792 through 1797 Benjamin Banneker, an African American
mathematician and amateur astronomer, calculated ephemerides
(tables of the locations of stars and planets) for almanacs that were
widely distributed and influential. Because of these works, Banneker
became one of the most famous African Americans in early U.S.
history.

Early life
On November 9, 1731, Benjamin Banneker was born in Baltimore
County, Maryland. He was the son of an African slave named
Robert, who had bought his own freedom, and of Mary Banneky,
who was the daughter of an Englishwoman and a free African slave.
Benjamin grew up on his father's farm with three sisters. After
learning to read from his mother and grandmother, Benjamin read
the bible to his family in the evening. He attended a nearby Quaker
country school for several seasons, but this was the extent of his
formal education. He later taught himself literature, history, and
mathematics, and he enjoyed reading.
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As he grew into an adult, Banneker inherited the farm left to him by

his grandparents. He expanded the already successful farm, where
he grew tobacco. In 1761, at the age of thirty, Banneker constructed
a striking wooden clock without having ever seen a clock before
(although he had examined a pocket watch). He painstakingly
carved the toothed wheels and gears of the clock out of seasoned
wood. The clock operated successfully until the time of his death.

Interest in astronomy
At the age of fifty-eight Banneker became interested in astronomy
(the study of the universe) through the influence of a neighbor,
George Ellicott, who lent him several books on the subject as well
as a telescope and drafting instruments (tools used in astronomy).
Without further guidance or assistance, Banneker taught himself the
science of astronomy. He made projections for solar (of the Sun)
and lunar (of the Moon) eclipses and computed ephemerides for an
almanac. In 1791 Banneker was unable to sell his observations, but
these rejections did not stop his studies.

In February 1791 Major Andrew Ellicott (1754–1820), an American

surveyor (one who maps out new lands for development), was
appointed to survey the 10-mile square of the Federal Territory for a
new national capital. Banneker worked in the field for several
months as Ellicott's scientific assistant. After the base lines and
boundaries had been established and Banneker had returned
home, he prepared an ephemeris for the following year, which was
published in Baltimore in Benjamin
Banneker's Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia
Almanack and Ephemeris, for the Year of Our Lord, 1792; Being
Bissextile, or Leap-Year, and the Sixteenth Year of American
Independence. Banneker's calculations would give the positions of
the planets and stars for each day of the year, and his almanacs
were published every year from 1792 until 1797.

Communications with Thomas Jefferson

Banneker forwarded a copy of his calculations to Thomas
Jefferson (1743–1826), then secretary of state, with a letter
criticizing Jefferson for his proslavery views and urging the
abolishment (ending) of slavery of African American people. He
compared such slavery to the enslavement of the American
colonies by the British crown. Jefferson acknowledged Banneker's
letter and forwarded it to the Marquis de Condorcet, the secretary of
the Académie des Sciences in Paris. The exchange of letters
between Banneker and Jefferson was published as a separate
pamphlet, and was given wide publicity at the time the first almanac
was published. The two letters were reprinted in Banneker's
almanac for 1793, which also included "A Plan for an Office of
Peace," which was the work of Dr. Benjamin Rush(1745–1813). The
abolition societies of Maryland and Pennsylvania were very helpful
in the publication of Banneker's almanacs, which were widely
distributed as an example of an African American's work and to
demonstrate the equal mental abilities of the races.

The last known issue of Banneker's almanacs appeared for the year
1797, because of lessening interest in the antislavery movement.
Nevertheless, he prepared ephemerides for each year until 1804.
He also published a treatise (a formal writing) on bees and
computed the cycle of the seventeen-year locust.

Banneker never married. He died on October 9, 1806, and was

buried in the family burial ground near his house. Among the
memorabilia preserved from his life were his commonplace book
and the manuscript journal in which he had entered astronomical
calculations and personal notations. Writers who described his
achievements as that of the first African American scientist have
kept Banneker's memory alive. Recent studies have proven
Banneker's status as an extremely capable mathematician and
amateur astronomer.

For More Information

Bedini, Silvio A. The Life of Benjamin Banneker. New York:
Scribner, 1971.
Ferris, Jerri. What Are You Figuring Now? A Story About Benjamin
Banneker. New York: Scholastic, 1988.

Pinckney, Andrea Davis. Dear Benjamin Banneker. San Diego:

Harcourt Brace, 1994.
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Benjamin Banneker
Encyclopedia of World Biography 
COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc.

Benjamin Banneker

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), an African American

mathematician and amateur astronomer, calculated
ephemerides for almanacs for the years 1792 through 1797 that
were widely distributed.

On Nov. 9, 1731, Benjamin Banneker was born in Baltimore County,

Md. He was the son of an African slave named Robert, who had
bought his own freedom, and of Mary Banneky, who was the
daughter of an Englishwoman and a free African slave. Benjamin
lived on his father's farm and attended a nearby Quaker country
school for several seasons. He received no further formal education
but enjoyed reading and taught himself literature, history, and
mathematics. He worked as a tobacco planter for most of his life.
In 1761, at the age of 30, Banneker constructed a striking wooden
clock without having seen a clock before that time, although he had
examined a pocket watch. The clock operated successfully until the
time of his death.

At the age of 58 Banneker became interested in astronomy through

the influence of a neighbor, George Ellicott, who lent him several
books on astronomy as well as a telescope and drafting
instruments. Without further guidance or assistance, Banneker
taught himself the science of astronomy; he made projections for
solar and lunar eclipses and computed ephemerides (tables of the
locations of celestial bodies) for an almanac.
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In February 1791 Maj. Andrew Ellicott was appointed to survey the

10-mile square of the Federal Territory for a new national capital,
and Banneker worked in the field as his scientific assistant for
several months. After the base lines and boundaries had been
established and Banneker had returned home, he prepared an
ephemeris for the following year, which was published in Baltimore
in Benjamin Banneker's Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and
Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris, for the Year of Our Lord, 1792;
Being Bissextile, or Leap-Year, and the Sixteenth Year of American
Independence, which commenced July 4, 1776.

Banneker forwarded a manuscript copy of his calculations

to Thomas Jefferson, then secretary of state, with a letter rebuking
Jefferson for his proslavery views and urging the abolishment of
slavery of the African American, which he compared to the
enslavement of the American colonies by the British crown.
Jefferson acknowledged Banneker's letter and forwarded the
manuscript to the Marquis de Condorcet, the secretary of the
Académie des Sciences in Paris. The exchange of letters between
Banneker and Jefferson was published as a separate pamphlet and
given wide publicity at the time the first almanac was published. The
two letters were reprinted in Banneker's almanac for 1793, which
also included "A Plan for an Office of Peace," which was the work of
Dr. Benjamin Rush. The abolition societies of Maryland and
Pennsylvania were largely instrumental in the publication of
Banneker's almanacs, which were widely distributed as an example
of the work of an African American that demonstrated the equal
mental abilities of the races.

The last known issue of Banneker's almanacs appeared for the year
1797, because of diminishing interest in the antislavery movement;
nevertheless, he prepared ephemerides for each year until 1804.
He also published a treatise on bees and computed the cycle of the
17-year locust.

Banneker never married. He died on Oct. 9, 1806, and was buried

in the family burial ground near his house. Among the memorabilia
preserved was his commonplace book and the manuscript journal in
which he had entered astronomical calculations and personal
notations.

Banneker's memory was kept alive by writers who described his

achievements as the first African American scientist. Recent studies
have verified Banneker's status as an extremely competent
mathematician and amateur astronomer.

Further Reading
Two good biographical studies of Banneker are Martha E. Tyson, A
Sketch of the Life of Benjamin Banneker(1854), and her Banneker:
The Afric-American Astronomer, edited by Anne T. Kirk (1884). All
the available source material has been brought together in Silvio A.
Bedini, The Life of Benjamin Banneker (1972). Other treatments
include a brief account in John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to
Freedom: A History of American Negroes (1947; 3d ed. 1967);
Shirley Graham's fictionalized biography, Your Most Humble
Servant (1949); Wilhemena S. Robinson's sketch in Historical
Negro Biographies (1968); and a chapter in William J.
Simmons, Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising (1968).
Banneker's famous letter to Thomas Jefferson is in vol. 1 of Milton
Meltzer, ed., In Their Own Words: A History of the American Negro,
1619-1865 (3 vols., 1964-1967). For general background see E.
Franklin Frazier, The Negro in The United States (1949; rev. ed.
1963), and Winthrop D. Jordan's monumental White over Black:
American Attitudes toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (1968). □
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Banneker, Benjamin (1731-1806)

American Eras 
COPYRIGHT 1997 Gale Research Inc.

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)

Source

African american astronomer and mathematician

Young Math Genius. The son of a free mulatto mother and an

African father who had purchased his freedom, Benjamin
Banneker gained fame as a mathematician and astronomer. He was
born in 1731 and was mostly self-taught, as might be expected of
an African American on an isolated Maryland tobacco farm during
that time period, but it was clear that he had a genius for math. He
became a local celebrity when, at the age of twenty-one, he
borrowed a neighbor’s pocket watch and re-created each gear out
of wood, making a full-size clock—which continued to keep time for
fifty years.

Astronomy. When Banneker was forty, a well-to-do Quaker family

moved into the area. Despite differences in their status, age, and
color, he became friendly with eighteen-year-old George Ellicott,
who lent him books and a telescope and encouraged his lively
interest in astronomy. Based on his own computations, Banneker
created an almanac which calculated tides, phases of the moon,
and the location of stars for each day of the year. His first attempt to
get it published in 1791 was a failure, but it did come to the attention
of George’s cousin, Maj. Andrew Ellicott, himself an amateur
astronomer. Major Ellicott spoke of Banneker to the president of the
Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, who saw an
opportunity to help Banneker and to further the cause of antislavery.
If a free black had the genius to create an almanac, these reformers
reasoned, it might finally prove that blacks were in no way inferior to
whites.

Surveying. At about the same time, President George

Washington appointed a commission to survey the land that was to
become the District of Columbia, and he chose Major Ellicott to
direct the project. Through the Ellicotts, Banneker was asked to join
the team. He accepted and in February 1791, at the age of sixty, left
his home area for the first time and traveled to Alexandria and
Georgetown. Physically he was unable to stand the rigors of
fieldwork, but he handled all the astronomical observations and
calculations for the team. After three months of living in a tent and
being eager to get back to his almanac, he returned home in April.
He continued to work on his almanac and, through an antislavery
society, came to the attention of the famous mathematician David
Rittenhouse, who verified the accuracy of Ban-neker’s astronomical
calculations. “Every Instance of Genius amongst the Negroes is
worthy of attention,” Rittenhouse wrote, “because their oppressors
seem to lay great stress on their supposed inferior mental abilities.”

Correspondence with Jefferson. In 1791 Banneker sent a long

and remarkable letter to Secretary of State Thomas
Jefferson appealing for his help in eradicating slavery in the United
States. He used Jefferson’s own words from the Declaration of
Independence to demonstrate that the same rights that
Revolutionary patriots fought for were still denied to blacks in
the United States. Jefferson’s reply was brief and ambiguous, but
he did express his hope that Banneker’s example would prove that
the appearance of black inferiority was merely a result of their
degraded condition under slavery—a point that Jefferson’s own
biases never overcame. Later that year Banneker’s almanac for
1792 was printed; it sold out quickly and went into various printings
until 1802. Although later editions did not sell well, the almanac
brought in enough money for him to quit farming and devote himself
to his research and writing.

Symbolic Life. When Banneker died in 1806, his obituary in

the Baltimore newspaper noted his accomplishments and the
symbolism of his life’s work: “Mr. Banneker is a prominent instance
to prove that a descendant of Africa is susceptible of as great
mental improvement and deep knowledge into the mysteries of
nature as that of any nation.” Thus Benjamin Banneker became a
symbol of the antislavery movement.

Source
Kevin Conley, Benjamin Banneker (New York: Chelsea House,
1989).
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Banneker, Benjamin
Mathematics 
COPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc.

Banneker, Benjamin

American Mathematician and Astronomer

1731–1806

Benjamin Banneker is best known for his work in mathematics and

astronomy. According to W. Douglas Brown, Banneker was "the first
American Negro to challenge the world by the independent power of
his intellect."

A native of Baltimore County, Maryland, Benjamin Banneker was

born on November 9, 1731, and spent most of his life on his father's
farm located in what is now Ellicott City, Maryland. Although his
father had been a slave, his mother was born free to a white English
woman who came to America as an indentured servant and married
a native African.

Banneker's family had sufficient means to afford schooling. The

school was only open in the winter, and the pupils included a few
whites and two or three black children. There Benjamin learned to
read and do arithmetic to "double fractions." When he became old
enough to help on his father's farm, he continued to teach himself.

In his early life, Benjamin constructed a wooden clock that was a

reliable timepiece for over 20 years. It was the first striking clock of
its kind made completely in America. Benjamin quickly became
known as the smartest mathematician for miles around. In 1791,
Banneker was nominated by Secretary of StateThomas
Jefferson and appointed by President George Washington to the
commission to survey federal land for a national capital in
Washington, D.C. He had an important role in the layout and design
of the city, though his name does not appear on any contemporary
documents.

Banneker devoted himself to the study of astronomy. In 1792, he

produced his first almanac in which he recorded solar and
lunar eclipses , tide tables, and positions of the Sun, Moon, and
planets for each day of the year. The renowned work was given
to Thomas Jefferson along with a letter from Banneker pleading for
the rights of slaves held in the colonies. Jefferson sent the almanac
to M. de Condorcet, secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris,
praising the work. Thereafter, Banneker published yearly almanacs
until his health declined in 1804.

Benjamin Banneker died on October 9, 1806. *On the day of his

funeral, fire consumed his house, which destroyed his laboratory.
*Benjamin Banneker's work and memory remains alive today
through groups which bear his name.

Jacqueline Leonard

Bibliography
Mulcrone, Thomas F. "Benjamin Banneker, Pioneer Negro
Mathematician." Mathematics Teacher 54 (1961): 32–37.

Internet Resources

Brown, Mitchell C. "Benjamin Banneker, Mathematician,

Astronomer." The Faces of Science: African Americans in the
Sciences. 2000.
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/banneker.html>.
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Banneker, Benjamin
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History 
COPYRIGHT 2006 Thomson Gale

Banneker, Benjamin

November 9, 1731
October 9, 1806
Benjamin Banneker was an amateur astronomer and the first
African-American man of science. He was born free in Baltimore
County, Maryland, the son of a freed slave from Guinea named
Robert and Mary Banneky, the daughter of a formerly indentured
English servant named Molly Welsh and her husband Bannka, a
freed slave who claimed to be the son of a Gold Coast tribal
chieftain.

Raised with three sisters in a log house built by his father on his
100-acre farm near the banks of the Patapsco River, Banneker
received no formal schooling except for several weeks' attendance
at a nearby Quaker one-room schoolhouse. Taught to read and
write from a Bible by his white grandmother, he became a voracious
reader, borrowing books when he could. He was skillful in
mathematics and enjoyed creating mathematical puzzles and
solving others presented to him. At about the age of twenty-two he
successfully constructed a wooden striking clock without ever
having seen one. Banneker approached the project as a
mathematical problem, working out relationships between toothed
wheels and gears and painstakingly carving each from seasoned
wood with a pocketknife. The clock continued telling and striking the
hours until his death. Banneker cultivated tobacco, first with his
parents and then alone until about the age of fifty-nine, when
rheumatism forced his retirement. He was virtually self-sufficient,
growing vegetables and cultivating orchards and bees. Banneker
espoused no particular religion or creed, but he was a very religious
man, attending the services and meetings of various denominations
held in the region, although he preferred those of the Society of
Friends.

It was during his retirement that Banneker became interested in

astronomy, after witnessing a neighbor observing the stars with a
telescope. With borrowed instruments and texts and without any
assistance from others, Banneker taught himself sufficient
mathematics and astronomy to make observations and to be able to
calculate an ephemeris for an almanac. His efforts to sell his
calculations for 1791 to a printer were not successful, but he
continued his celestial studies nonetheless.

Banneker's opportunity to apply what he had learned came in

February 1791, when President George Washington commissioned
the survey of an area 10 miles square in Virginia and Maryland in
which to establish the national capital. Unable on such short notice
to find an assistant capable of using the sophisticated instruments
required, the surveyor Andrew Ellicott selected Banneker to assist
him until others became available. During the first three months of
the survey, Banneker occupied the field observatory tent,
maintaining and correcting the regulator clock each day, and each
night making observations of the transit of stars with the zenith
sector, recording his nightly observations for Ellicott's use on the
next day's surveying. During his leisure time, he completed
calculations for an ephemeris for 1792. Banneker was employed on
the survey site from early February until late April 1791 and then
returned to his home in Baltimore County. Records of the survey
state that he was paid $60 for his participation and the costs of his
travel.

Shortly after his return home, Banneker sent a handwritten copy of

his ephemeris for 1792 to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson,
because, he wrote, Jefferson was considered "measurably friendly
and well disposed towards us," the African-American race, "who
have long laboured under the abuse and censure of the
world … have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt,
and … have long been considered rather as brutish than human,
and scarcely capable of mental endowments" (Jefferson-Coolidge
Papers, I.38–43, Massachusetts Historical Society). Banneker
submitted his calculations as evidence to the contrary and urged
that Jefferson work toward bringing an end to slavery. Jefferson
responded promptly: "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 other colours 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…. no body
wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising
the condition of both their body & mind to what it ought to be, as fast
as the imbecillity of their present existence, and other
circumstances which cannot be neglected, will admit" (Thomas
Jefferson Papers, f.11481, Library of Congress).

Excerpt of Benjamin Banneker's Letter to Thomas

…. Sir,…I hope you cannot but acknowledge that it is the
indispensable duty of those, who maintain for themselves the rights
of human nature, and who possess the obligations of Christianity, to
extend their power and influence to the relief of every part of the
human race, from whatever burden or oppression they may unjustly
labor under…. Sir, I have long been convinced, that if your love for
yourselves, and for those inestimable laws, which preserved to you
the rights of human nature, was founded on sincerity, you could not
but be solicitous, that every individual, of whatever rank or
distinction, might with you equally enjoy the blessings thereof;
neither could you rest satisfied short of the most active effusion of
your exertions, in order to their promotion from any state of
degradation, to which the unjustifiable cruelty and barbarism of men
may have reduced them.
Sir, suffer me to recall to your mind that time, in which the arms and
tyranny of the British crown were exerted, with every powerful effort,
in order to reduce you to a state of servitude: … reflect on that time,
in which every human aid appeared unavailable, and in which even
hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the conflict, and
you cannot but be led to a serious and grateful sense of your
miraculous and providential preservation….

This, Sir, was a time when you clearly saw into the injustice of a
state of slavery, and in which you had just apprehensions of the
horrors of its condition. It was now that your abhorrence thereof was
so excited, that you publicly held forth this true and invaluable
doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remembered in all
succeeding ages: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, and that among these are, life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness." …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
these rights and privileges, which he hath 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.

…. And now, Sir, although my sympathy and affection for my

brethren hath caused my enlargement thus far, I ardently hope, that
your candor and generosity will plead with you in my behalf, when I
make known to you, that it was not originally my design; but having
taken up my pen in order to direct to you, as a present, a copy of an
Almanac, which I have calculated for the succeeding year, I was
unexpectedly and unavoidably led thereto….

And now, Sir, I shall conclude, and subscribe myself, with the most
profound respect,

Your most obedient humble servant,

Benjamin banneker

Jefferson sent Banneker's calculations to the Marquis de

Condorcet, secretary of the French Academyof Sciences, with an
enthusiastic cover letter. There was no reply from Condorcet
because at the time of the letter's arrival he was in hiding for having
opposed the monarchy and having supported a republican form of
government. The two letters, that from Banneker to Jefferson and
the statesman's reply, were published in a widely distributed
pamphlet and in at least one periodical during the following year.

Banneker's ephemeris for 1792 was published by the Baltimore

printer Goddard & Angell with the title Benjamin Banneker's
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanack and
Ephemeris for the Year of Our Lord 1792. It was also sold by
printers in Philadelphia and Alexandria, Virginia. He continued to
calculate ephemerides that were published in almanacs bearing his
name for the next five years. Promoted by the abolitionist societies
of Pennsylvania and Maryland, Banneker's almanacs were
published by several printers and sold widely in the United
States and England. Twenty-eight separate editions of his almanacs
are known. A recent computerized analysis of Banneker's published
ephemerides and those calculated by several contemporaries for
the same years, including those by William Waring and Ellicott, has
revealed that Banneker's calculations consistently reflect a high
degree of comparative accuracy. Although he continued calculating
ephemerides through the year 1802, they remained unpublished.

Banneker died in his sleep following a morning walk on October 9,

1806, one month short of his seventy-fifth birthday. He was buried
several days later in the family graveyard within sight of his house.
As his body was being lowered into the grave, his house burst into
flames, and all of its contents were destroyed. The cause of the fire
remains unknown. Fortunately, the books and table he had
borrowed, his commonplace book, and the astronomical journal in
which he had copied all of his ephemerides had been given to his
neighbor immediately following his death and thus were preserved.

See also Science

Bibliography
Bedini, Silvio A. "Benjamin Banneker and the Survey of the District
of Columbia." Records of the Columbia Historical Society 69–70
(1971): 120–127.

Bedini, Silvio A. The Life of Benjamin Banneker: The First African-

American Man of Science. 2d ed., rev. and exp. Baltimore:
Maryland Historical Society, 1999.

Latrobe, John H. B. "Memoir of Benjamin Banneker." Maryland

Colonization Journal, n.s., 2, no. 23 (1845): 353–364.

Litwin, Laura Baskes. Benjamin Banneker: Astronomer and

Mathematician. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow, 1999.

Tyson, Martha E. "Banneker, the Afric-American Astronomer." From

the Posthumous Papers of Martha E. Tyson. Edited by her
daughter. Philadelphia: Friends' Book Association, 1884.
Silvio a. bedini (1996)
Updated bibliography
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Banneker, Benjamin
Shaping of America, 1783-1815 Reference Library 
COPYRIGHT 2006 Thomson Gale

Benjamin Banneker

Born November 9, 1731 (Baltimore County, Maryland)

Died October 9, 1806 (Baltimore County, Maryland)

Mathematician, astronomer

Benjamin Banneker was an accomplished self-taught

mathematician and astronomer. He is considered America's first
black scientist. Banneker calculated the daily position of celestial
bodies (visible stars and planets in the night sky) and printed this
information in charts, which he published in yearly almanacs. His
almanacs also featured calendars, times of sunrise and sunset,
phases of the moon, and other useful information. Banneker's
almanacs for the years 1792 to 1797 were widely published. They
brought international attention to Banneker, in large part because it
was an unparalleled achievement for a black American to publish at
all at that time in history.
"I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you, to need a proof here,
that we are a race of beings who have long laboured under the
abuse and censure of the world."

Benjamin Banneker, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson

In 1791, Banneker assisted in the land survey of the future site of

Washington, D.C. Perhaps Banneker's greatest accomplishment
was his plea for civil rights in his correspondence with then-U.S.
secretary of state Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826; see entry in
volume 1). Banneker called for the abolition (prohibition) of slavery
and challenged Jefferson to work for the ideals he had promoted for
all citizens in the 1776 Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence was the historic document
announcing that the American colonies had rejected British rule and
were forming a new nation, the United States of America.

The New World

Benjamin Banneker was a free black (non-slave) born in the British
colony of Maryland in 1731. At the time, thirteen colonies made up
the new land of America. Banneker's birthplace was on the family
farm near the Patapsco River, in the area that eventually became
known as Oella, Maryland.

Banneker's grandmother was a white woman named Molly Welsh.

Accused of a crime in England, she was pardoned on the condition
that she leave the country and settle in the American colonies. She
arrived in Maryland in 1683 aboard a ship filled with other laborers
headed for the New World. After working to pay off the money she
owed for her transportation to America, Welsh established a small
tobacco farm on the Patapsco River. Tobacco was an important
crop in Maryland, where the weather and soil provided perfect
growing conditions. Because she needed help on the farm, Welsh
purchased two slaves who had just arrived from Africa and put them
to work. She married one of them, a man named Banna Ka. People
called him Bannaky, although over time the spelling was altered to
Banneky. The couple had four children together.

In 1730, the Bannekys' eldest daughter, Mary, married a freed black

slave named Robert, and he took her last name, Banneky, as his
own. Benjamin was the first child born to Robert and Mary Banneky.
(The family name was later changed to Banneker.) He was soon
joined by three sisters. The entire family lived in Molly Welsh's
cabin, and all of them did their part to make the farm successful.
Few black families owned farms at that time, because most blacks
were slaves, but the Bannekys made a good living raising tobacco.
Grandmother Molly taught Benjamin and his sisters to read and
write by having them study the Bible she had brought with her from
England, the only book the family owned.

A land for life

By 1737, Robert and Mary Banneky had saved enough money to
buy an additional 100 acres on a tract of land called Stout. Although
Benjamin was only six years old, his father added the boy's name to
the deed of ownership. The land was located near the Chesapeake
Bay. The Bannekys built a log cabin there, and Benjamin would live
in that cabin for the rest of his life.

Benjamin enjoyed learning and attended a one-room country school

for several years during the winter months, when work on the farm
slowed down. For the rest of the year, he taught himself literature,
history, and religion with books he borrowed. He was especially
gifted in mathematics and showed a talent for creating and solving
mathematical puzzles. It was around this time that the spelling of
Benjamin's family name changed to Banneker.
On time
The demands of the farm soon ended young Banneker's formal
education, but his love of learning continued. Along with
mathematics, he was particularly interested in studying machines.
When Banneker was twenty-one years old, he was given a pocket
watch to examine. Always interested in a mathematical challenge,
he took the watch apart and drew pictures of what he saw. He then
calculated the ratio of the gears and wheels in order to build a clock
for himself. He carved each piece from wood with a pocketknife
and, with a few necessary metal pieces, built a clock that kept
perfect time for the rest of his life.

The clock was a rare sight in rural eighteenth-century America and

became the subject of considerable interest throughout the region
(see box). Banneker was soon quite famous in his community, as
word spread rapidly about his fascinating timepiece. People who
lived in the county may not have heard of Benjamin Banneker the
farmer, but they soon began talking about Benjamin Banneker the
clock maker. They came from all over the valley to visit his
farmhouse and see the clock with the brass bell that chimed on the
hour.

In 1763, Banneker purchased his first book, a Bible, in which he

recorded the date of his own birth as well as the date of his father's
death, July 10, 1759. His sisters married and moved to their own
homes nearby, while Banneker and his mother continued to work
the farm until her death in 1775. Banneker bought a flute and a
violin and learned to play them by practicing after his regular work-
day was over. Occasionally, neighbors or relatives would stop by to
enjoy the music he played each evening on his front porch.

Astronomy's pull
In 1771, Banneker turned forty. That same year, he had new
neighbors—the Ellicott family—who purchased large tracts of land
next to his farm. The Ellicotts built flour mills, sawmills, and a
general store, which together invigorated the area's economy. Once
the flour mills opened, local farmers were able to produce crops
other than tobacco for a profit.

Banneker's relationship with the Ellicotts began with a contract to

supply food for the many workers they employed, but he soon
became friends with the family. Even though it was less expensive
to buy slaves than to hire workers at the time, the Ellicotts chose not
to own slaves. They belonged to a Christian church called the
Society of Friends, whose members were called Quakers. Quakers
opposed slavery and believed that all people should be treated with
equal respect.

Keeping Time
Clocks were rarely seen in rural America in the eighteenth century,
because few people needed to keep precise track of time. Most
people told time by watching the position of the sun in the sky.
Farmers in particular began their workday when the sun came up,
ate lunch when the sun was high overhead, and ended the workday
when the sun went down. In a society where most people were
farmers, the position of the sun was far more important than the
position of hour and minute hands on a clock.

Rural America tended to view timepieces as a novelty. Church bells

rang on the hour and were often used to announce celebrations or
emergencies. However, most people lived on farms and plantations,
too far from settlements to hear them ringing. The boom of a
cannon was substituted for the ringing of a bell when time came to
announce important events such as the arrival of a supply ship at
the docks in tidewater Maryland.

Banneker continued working his farm and devoted more acres to

grain that would be sold to the Ellicotts. In 1775, the American
Revolution (1775–83) began. Free blacks like Banneker were not
required to join the army, and none of the battles took place within
Maryland's borders; therefore, Banneker's life remained much the
same as it had always been. By the late 1780s, Banneker had
developed a special friendship with George Ellicott (1760–1832),
largely based on their common interest in the sciences. Ellicott,
nearly thirty years younger than Banneker, was a skilled surveyor
and astronomer. He loaned Banneker a telescope, several
astronomy books, and a sturdy wooden table on which to use them.
Banneker studied the books and the skies for hours each night. He
faithfully recorded the movements of the stars and planets he
observed. Banneker taught himself so well that he was able to
predict the solar eclipse of April 14, 1789, which even well-known
scientists had not expected.

Banneker spent most of 1789 observing the sky every night in order
to calculate information for a 1790 almanac he hoped to produce.
Armed with all the necessary astronomical calculations, Banneker
contacted several different publishing houses, but he was unable to
get his work published. Members of abolitionist societies
(organizations opposed to slavery) in Maryland and Pennsylvania
heard of his accomplishments and rallied to try to help Banneker
find a publisher. They knew that if an almanac authored by a free
black was published, it would serve as valuable proof of the
intellectual abilities of all blacks; this, in turn, would help them in the
fight against slavery. Their efforts to find a publisher came too late
for the 1791 almanac, so Banneker began work on calculations for
1792.
Building the nation's capital
Although America had finally won its independence in 1783, the
new country did not yet have a capital city. In 1790, U.S.
president George Washington (1732–1799; served 1789–97; see
entry in volume 2) appointed a famous French architect
named Pierre-Charles L'Enfant (1754–1825; see entry in volume
2) to design a new city that would be the nation's capital. It was to
be located on the Potomac River (which separated parts of
Maryland and Virginia). Washington also appointed a land surveyor,
Major Andrew Ellicott (1754–1820), who was George Ellicott's
cousin. Major Ellicott needed an assistant to make astronomical
calculations for the survey; he naturally recommended Banneker.
George Ellicott's wife, Elizabeth, helped Benjamin pick out new
clothes for the trip, anticipating that he would meet many important
people while working on the survey.

In January 1791, Banneker left his farm in the care of his sisters and
joined the team assigned to build the capital of the United States. It
was his first trip away from his cabin in Maryland. By the end of
April, his work completed, Banneker returned to his farm and
resumed his calculations for a 1792 almanac.

A plea for freedom

With the support of George Ellicott and the Pennsylvania and
Maryland abolition societies that had previously shown an interest in
his work, Banneker's 1792 almanac was published in late 1791. A
few months before publication, Banneker sent a manuscript copy
to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson; Banneker enclosed a letter
urging the abolition of slavery. Jefferson wrote back quickly,
thanking him for the almanac. In his response, Jefferson expressed
a desire "for raising the condition" of slaves and stated that
Banneker's book could prove the intellect of blacks. Otherwise, he
largely avoided the issue of freedom for blacks in his brief letter.

The correspondence between Banneker and Jefferson was

published as a pamphlet and distributed at the same time that the
almanac appeared. The almanac's first edition came out in
December 1791. It sold out immediately, so a second edition was
required. The following year, Banneker's almanac included the letter
he had written to Jefferson and Jefferson's reply. In 1795, the
almanac added a new feature, a portrait of Banneker on the cover.
Banneker published an almanac every year until 1797, when sales
declined. Competition had increased from publishers of other
almanacs (see box). In addition, interest in the abolition movement,
which had promoted Banneker's almanac as proof of black
Americans' potential, was dwindling. Banneker continued with his
annual calculations until 1804, but none of them were ever
published. He simply continued the practice for his own enjoyment.

The financial success of his early almanacs allowed Banneker to

spend less time farming. He sold most of his land and pursued a
variety of interests, although his health was declining. He continued
to live in his own home until his death on October 9, 1806, just one
month short of his seventy-fifth birthday. Prior to Banneker's funeral,
at Banneker's request, a nephew had collected all the borrowed
texts and instruments from his uncle's cabin in order to return them
to George Ellicott. All of Banneker's other possessions were
destroyed when his cabin caught fire; this occurred at the same
hour that his relatives were burying him in the family graveyard.
Everything was lost, including his clock and most of his personal
papers. Benjamin Banneker did not live to see the end of slavery,
which would not occur for nearly sixty years. However, Banneker's
accomplishments helped shape America by providing inspiration for
others in the quest for freedom.
Almanac: An Important Reference Book
In colonial times, most people owned an almanac. It contained a
yearly calendar that determined when holy days and festivals were
celebrated. It also told people when they could expect an eclipse
(when Earth blocks the Sun's light on the Moon or the Moon blocks
the Sun's light on Earth). If a person did not own a clock, an
almanac could report on the time of day. It listed the times of
sunrise and sunset. Farmers used their almanacs to gauge when to
plant their crops and to find predictions about weather changes from
season to season. Sailors referred to the almanac's charts of the
stars to determine their position on the seas.

Many publishers produced almanacs each year, but perhaps the

most popular ever produced was Poor Richard's Almanac, created
by statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790; see
entry in volume 1). First published in 1732, it became the model for
other almanacs to follow.

For More Information

Books

Bedini, Silvio A. The Life of Benjamin Banneker. 2nd ed. Baltimore:

Maryland Historical Society, 1999.

Cerami, Charles A. Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer,

Publisher, Patriot. New York: J. Wiley, 2002.

Conley, Kevin. Benjamin Banneker. New York: Chelsea House,

1989.

Logan, Rayford W., and Michael R. Winston, eds. Dictionary of

American Negro Biography. New York: W. W. Norton, 1982.
Web Sites

"Benjamin Banneker 1731–1806." Mathematicians of the African

Diaspora.http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/special/banneker-
benjamin.html (accessed on August 11, 2005).

"Who Was Benjamin Banneker?" The Banneker Center for

Economic
Justice.http://www.progress.org/banneker/bb.html (accessed on
August 11, 2005).
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Benjamin Banneker
Science and Its Times: Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery 
COPYRIGHT 2001 The Gale Group Inc.

Benjamin Banneker

1731-1806

African American Inventor, Astronomer and Mathematician

Benjamin Banneker is known as the first African-American scientist

in the United States. Until the 1980s his life and work were virtually
ignored by historians. He made important contributions the fields of
inventing, surveying, agriculture, and the sciences. He
corresponded with some of the leading political figures during the
revolutionary war period, and his work began the slow process of
gaining respect for African-American scientific contributions.

Banneker was born in Ellicott, Maryland, on November 9, 1731, and

was the first of three children. The only son of two freed slaves, he
grew up on the family farm where he cultivated early in his
childhood a fascination with the mechanical nature of how things
work. Despite having to work hard to help support the family, he
received eight years of formal schooling from a nearby Quaker
school. During his childhood his grandmother read and discussed
the Bible with him, and he read many books by William
Shakespeare, John Milton, Alexander Pope, and other popular
authors of the day. In addition, he enjoyed studying the movement
of the stars and planets and creating and solving math puzzles. It is
said that he owned no books of his own until he was nearly 32 years
old.

Because he grew up on a tobacco farm, Banneker was very familiar

with the problems of farmers. He designed a system of irrigation
that countered the effects of dry periods that had previously been
devastating for local farmers. During the Revolutionary War, wheat
grown on a farm designed by Banneker is credited with saving the
revolutionary troops from near starvation.

Banneker was also known as a mechanical genius and a

knowledgeable mathematician. At age 21 he took apart a friend's
watch in hopes of understanding how it worked. With the watch as a
model, he worked for two years, building a wooden clock that
gained him a measure of fame. The clock kept time and struck on
the hour for over 20 years.

Banneker also taught himself astronomy through books he

borrowed from friends. He built a work cabin with a skylight and
soon was able to predict solar and lunar eclipses. In 1791 he
compiled his information into a book titled Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Maryland, and Virginia Almanac and Ephemeris, an almanac that
contained information about tides, eclipses, history, literature,
astrology, and medicine. This popular volume ran for six years and
remained in publication for nearly ten years. Banneker sent a copy
to Thomas Jefferson as proof that black people, if given better living
conditions and an education, were capable of intellectual
accomplishments. The book impressed Jefferson, and he passed it
along to the French Academy of Sciences and to the President of
the United States, George Washington.

Later in 1791, as a direct result of Banneker's correspondence

with Thomas Jefferson, President Washington appointed Banneker
to a six-person planning team surveying the Territory of Columbia in
preparation for the future American capital to be built there. When
Pierre-Charles L'Enfant (1754-1825), the project architect, was
terminated, he took the only set of plans with him. Within two days
Banneker was able to recreate the layout of the streets, parks, and
major buildings of L'Enfant's plans from memory. This amazing
effort saved the fledgling United States government incalculable
time and effort, as it was able to use Banneker's recreated plans to
build Washington, D.C.

Banneker also was involved in the anti-slavery movement. He wrote

pamphlets and essays, the most significant being A Plan of Peace-
Office for the United States. His opinion was well respected by
many people opposed to slavery. Later in his life he sold off parcels
of his farm, maintaining only enough funds to finance his scientific
experiments. He died in poverty at his farm in October 1806. As his
body was being interred, his house caught fire, destroying his books
and notes and his prized wooden clock.

LESLIE HUTCHINSON
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Early Life
Benjamin Banneker, an African American mathematician, astronomer and surveyor was
born on 9th November 1731. His family history is not very well known but there are
however many assumptions. According to some writers and historians he was of the
European American ancestry with his mother being a servant who came to America
whereas none of Banneker’s papers mentions a white ancestor giving him an African
root only. Other biographers state that he belonged to the Dogon tribe which was known
to have a great knowledge of astronomy. During his teenage years, Banneker became
friends with a farmer named Peter Heinrichs who owned a school near the family farm
of Banneker. The library of this school became the root of Banneker’s education. He
was self-educated in Literature, History and mathematics by himself.
Benjamin Banneker’s Interest in Astronomy
Banneker liked watching the stars from the very beginning. Later when he grew up he
studied astronomy by borrowing books from other people. He was inspired by an
industrialist in Maryland, Joseph Ellicott and started astronomical calculations in 1773.
In 1789 he had made a prediction about a solar eclipse which really did occur. From
1791 he published an ephemeris which was published in Baltimore in Benjamin
Banneker’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanac and Ephemeris,
for the Year of Our Lord, 1792; Being Bissextile, or Leap-Year, and the Sixteenth Year
of American Independence. His calculations gave the positions of the planets and stars
for each day of the year, and his almanacs were published annually from 1792 until
1797.
Views on Racial Discrimination and Slavery
Banneker was a supporter of peace and strictly opposed racial discrimination. In 1793
he proposed a peace plan for America which included many points including a
suggestion that there should be a ‘Secretary of Peace’. In his letters to Thomas
Jefferson, who wrote the United States Declaration of Independence and was the US
secretary of State, Banneker included many anti-slavery speeches, essays and poetry
by anti-slavery poets such as William Cowper placed in his almanac in 1793. Jefferson
sent Banneker’s almanac to European scientists who commended it for its ideas. His
almanacs showed that the mental ability of Banneker showing that it has nothing to do
with race or color. His last almanac was issued in 1797 due to a decrease of public
interest in the issues of racism and race discrimination.

Death and Memorials

Banneker never got married. He died on 9th October 1806 and was buried near his
home. Alcohol abuse may have been the cause of his death however this is not
confirmed. The Maryland Bicentennial Commission and the State Commission on Afro
American History and Culture created an obelisk in 1977 that stands near his grave in
Oella, Maryland. The Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks made a
Park commemorating Benjamin Banneker on 9th June 1998. The main emphasis of this
park is on Banneker’s contributions to the field of astronomy and Mathematics. There is
a gallery that features his works. On November 9th 2009 there was a replica of his log
cabin created in the park on the 278th anniversary of Banneker’s birth.