The exceptional life of Benjamin Banneker – Rose-Margaret Ekeng-Itua, On the day of the funeral it burned down together with almost all of Banneker’s records (and furthermore the still running pocket watch). Benjamin Banneker died at the age of 74 in the house of his farm sold to the Ellicott family. In his last years, he published papers on bees and the cycle of grasshoppers, among other subjects. „The color of the skin is in no way connected with the strength of the mind or intellectual powers.“ (1796) Even though Thomas Jefferson was opposed to slavery, he also believed that due to the “racial and intellectual differences, black and white people could not live together peacefully”. The almanac further contained copies of his correspondence with Jefferson, poetry by the African American poet Phillis Wheatley and by the English anti-slavery poet William Cowper, and anti-slavery speeches and essays from England and America. Concerning racial equality and slavery, Benjamin Banneker expressed his views in a letter to Thomas Jefferson and also in documents placed within his 1793 almanac. He further published his Almanac and Ephemeris and its subsequent revisions in a number of editions in a six-year series of almanacs which were printed and sold in six cities in four states for the years 1792 through 1797. The AlmanachsĪfter Benjamin Banneker left the survey (early), he performed astronomical calculations at Ellicott’s Mills that predicted solar and lunar eclipses included in his ephemeris. Banneker’s contributions included astronomical observations as well as maintaining a clock to relate points on the ground to the positions of stars at specific times. In the 1790s, the surveyor Major Andrew Ellicott ( cousin of George Ellicott) hired Benjamin Banneker to assist in a survey project to place boundary stones at or near every mile point along the borders of the (new) capital territory. Astronomyĭuring the end of the 1780s, Banneker sent George his work calculating a solar eclipse. Ellicott loaned Banneker books and equipment to begin a more formal study of astronomy around 1788. In 1772, the Ellicott family moved into the area and Banneker became friends with George Ellicott due to their shared interest in science. In 1759, Banneker’s father died and he continued to live with his mother and sisters. The clock not only worked for the rest of Banneker’s life but also increased Benjamin Banneker’s reputation in the community. material from wood, which made him well-known in the region. In 1753, at age 22 Banneker developed one of the first pocket watches made entirely of U.S. He showed an early aptitude for mathematics and mechanics. Banneker grew up on this farm and attended a Quaker school for several winters, but his knowledge and skills came primarily from his grandmother, much of which he also taught himself. After her seven-year labor contract expired, she bought a tobacco farm and later married one of her two slaves, an African. His grandmother, a native of England, was sentenced to hard labor as a bonded laborer in Maryland for alleged theft. – Benjamin Benneker Benjamin Banneker – Early Yearsīanneker was born a free citizen under the name Benjamin Bannaky, as his parents (his mother by birth, his father had ransomed himself) were also free. Abolitionists and advocates of racial equality promoted and praised his works. He corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the United States Declaration of Independence, on the topics of slavery and racial equality. Banneker’s knowledge of astronomy helped him author a commercially successful series of almanacs. Born in Baltimore County, Maryland, to a free African American woman and a former slave, Banneker had little formal education and was largely self-taught. On November 9, 1731, American almanac author, surveyor, naturalist and farmer Benjamin Banneker was born.
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