Benjamin Banneker
Self-educated Mathematician, Astronomer, Scientist, and Author would be proud of the Black Lives Matter in the middle of our Nations Capital, land which he plotted out in 1791.
In 1791, United States President George Washington, Continental Army Major Andrew Ellicott, and a self-educated, born free Black man, Benjamin Banneker, joined together to map the borders of the new city capital. The area surveyed bordered Virginia, Maryland, and sat on the Potomac River which was one of the busiest ports.
Born on November 9, 1731 to a former slave father and a mulatto mother, he inherited their 100 acre tobacco farm, orchard, and apiary in Oella, Maryland. His mother’s mother, Molly Walsh, had been a literate, indentured servant from Ireland. His grandmother taught Benjamin how to read and write, and then he taught himself about math, science, and astronomy. He also taught himself how to build a clock, a mechanical wonder in the 1700’s. Benjamin had carved it out of one piece of wood and people regularly visited his farm to marvel at his masterpiece.
Andrew Ellicott moved to Maryland with his family and founded Ellicott City, Maryland. It was Andrew Ellicott who later mentored Merriweather Lewis for the infamous Lewis and Clark Expedition. Maybe it was Ellicott’s curiosity about Benjamin’s clock that brought the two together, but the two men eventually struck up a friendship. Due to their mutual scientific interests, Andrew Ellicott supplied Benjamin with his first telescope in order to view the stars. Benjamin became so good at Astronomy that he forecasted and calculated for his first almanac an Ephemeris, which is a set of astronomical projections. “Benjamin Banneker’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris, for the Year of Our Lord 1792” was his first publishing. Between 1792 and 1797, Benjamin Banneker published six almanacs with his astronomical data, mathematical puzzles, and essays on the injustices of slavery. According to White House History.org, he was 58 in the year 1789 when he forecasted his first eclipse.
George Washington was Ellicott’s cousin and brought Benjamin on as a practical engineer for surveying the new nation’s capital. Andrew asked Banneker to lend his expertise and accompany him on the monumental project for the new federal government. Due to Benjamin’s age and health, the harsh cold of the climate, he carried out the majority of his duties in an observation tent. He was paid $2 a day for his astronomical observations, which was the same as the usual salary for assistant surveyors at the time.
Thomas Jefferson, who was the Secretary of State at the time, stated in his book “Notes on the State of Virginia” in 1785, that people of African descent were intellectually inferior to whites. He owned at least 600 slaves in his lifetime and in American history Thomas Jefferson left behind quite the legacy of being a slave owner. In an article for the Georgetown Weekly Ledger, being aware of Benjamin Banneker on the survey team with Ellicott, it was stated that ‘Ellicott is attended by Benjamin Banneker, an Ethiopian, whose abilities, as a surveyor, and an astronomer, clearly prove that Mr. Jefferson’s concluding that race of men were void of mental endowments, was without foundation.’
Upon learning that the workers hired by President George Washington to build the nations capital were slaves, Benjamin Banneker wrote and mailed Jefferson a 1,400 page letter with a copy of his Almanac. He had never been enslaved, but due to the nature of American history, he was slapped with one of many labels always attached to his name: a free black, Negro, Ethiopian, or descendant of Africa. His publications were always reviewed with high regard and always the color of his skin. Benjamin’s response about this was ‘I am annoyed to find that the subject of my race is much stressed. The work is either correct or it is not. In this case, I believe it to be perfect.’
Jefferson responded to Benjamin, without taking action to free enslaved men, by forwarding the Almanac to French Philosopher and Mathematician Marquis de Condorcet. Jefferson wrote him that it was ‘a document to which your whole color had a right for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them.’
In 1792 with his second Almanac publication, Benjamin Banneker included the correspondence he’d had with Thomas Jefferson. The pamphlets brought about discussion in society and among the abolitionists. Slavery was normal and widely permitted. It was a dangerous time to push for the abolishment of slavery, even when you corresponded with those in charge of a new capital city which you helped plan the survey markers for. Due to the oppression of slaves, not many black men and women could even read. Benjamin made no subsequent publishing's of such matters in his later almanacs. The seed he planted next came with a picture of himself on his almanac covers.
Benjamin Banneker died on October 9, 1806 at his home in Oella, Maryland. He never married, had no children, and we only know of him because Andrew Ellicott’s granddaughter, Martha Ellicott Tyson wrote several biographies about him after his death. During Benjamin’s funeral, his home caught fire and destroyed most of his possessions and writings. He was known as a compassionate, contemplative, light-hearted author who aspired to spread his views on equality, and the hypocritical injustices prevalent in the country. White Abolitionists from the north had yearly published his almanacs and pamphlets. John H. B. Latrobe, an Engineer, inventor, and Lawyer who advocated to free slaves and became President of The Society of the Colonization of the Free People of Color of America, gathered what correspondences he could and shared them to the Maryland Historical Society.
When I was a little girl, my grandfather who was an Architect and Engineer used to talk to me about my Black history. He himself was of Italian descent, born and raised in Niagara Falls, NY. My father, a Black man from New Orleans was not around to do so, and so this beautiful grandfather of mine taught me about prejudice and historical racism. He worked with me on my school projects, and helped me build many diorama’s. I will never forget how he helped me with one on the wine ports in Bordeaux, France. His words after some of our talks were, “You have to learn how to deal with racism because you are going to deal with racist and prejudice from assholes your whole life.” Violence wasn’t always the answer. I’ll just say that I was a difficult child when it came to dealing with it at my New York elementary school during the 1980’s and leave it at that. I split my time between NY and California, where my mother and step-father lived, and much preferred the schools in California. But OH, HOW I LOVED MY GRANDPARENTS! My grandfather was my foundation, and since they had a ton of books, I had people I could talk to about things that confused me as a child.
Benjamin Banneker was someone my grandfather told me about. I remember him pointing to his picture in a book and telling me, in the VERY inflated way he had on his profession, that this man had designed the White House. Leave it to a Dad to understand how little girls will always love their father’s, huh?
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser is well aware of American History. The Pentagon is definitely NOT in support of allowing Military Violence against American Citizens during a Peaceful Protest.
I think today, Benjamin Banneker would be very proud of ‘Black Lives Matter’ being painted in the middle of the street leading right up to the White House. It sends a strong PEACEFUL message! It is RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of land that he surveyed which became our Nation’s Capital. Unfortunately, I also know that looking back from the 1790’s, he would most definitely be very saddened that almost 300 years later, in the year 2020, this is the action that needs to be taken in order to bring awareness that his brethren are human beings. No matter our skin color, we matter just as much as White people, and we do not deserve for our deaths at the hands of White people in positions of authority to go DISCREETLY unpunished, or unknown of, names forgotten. Skin color doesn’t mean a mental, or emotional inferiority. Obviously, Blacks were never looked at as physically inferior, since it was our enslaved ancestors that dug for the foundations, carried the dirt, laid the bricks, and literally built the very foundation of this country.
We should never forget that a self-educated Black man surveyed the land that became a new federation. Keep in mind, that before President George Washington, before One Nation For All, our United States of America was just a colony…and a split colony at that. The older generation has so much history to teach us, if we would only listen, do the research, and learn.
