Benjamin Banneker

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Benjamin Banneker
Born November 9, 1731
Baltimore County, Province of Maryland, British America
Died October 9, 1806 (1806-10-10) (aged 74)
Baltimore County, Maryland, U.S.
Nationality American
Other names Benjamin Bannaker
Occupation almanac author, surveyor, farmer

Benjamin Banneker (November 9, 1731 – October 9, 1806) was a free African American almanac author, surveyor, naturalist and farmer. 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. He is known for being part of a group led by Major Andrew Ellicott that surveyed the borders of the original District of Columbia, the federal capital district of the United States.

Banneker's knowledge of astronomy helped him author a commercially successful series of almanacs. He corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the United States Declaration of Independence, on the topics of slavery and racial equality. Abolitionists and advocates of racial equality promoted and praised his works.

Although a fire on the day of Banneker's funeral destroyed many of his papers and belongings, one of his journals and several of his remaining artifacts are presently available for public viewing.

Parks, schools, streets and other tributes have commemorated Banneker throughout the years since he lived. However, many accounts of his life exaggerate or falsely attribute his works.

Early life

Benjamin Banneker was born on November 9, 1731, in Baltimore County, Maryland to his mother Mary, a free black, and his father Robert, a freed slave from Guinea.[1][2] There are two conflicting accounts of Banneker's family history. Banneker himself and his earliest biographers described him as having only African ancestry.[3][4][5] None of Banneker's surviving papers describe a white ancestor or identify the name of his grandmother.[4] However, later biographers have contended that Banneker's mother was the child of Molly Welsh, a white indentured servant, and an African slave named Banneka.[4] The first published description of Molly Welsh was based on interviews with her descendants that took place after 1836, long after the deaths of both Molly and Benjamin.[4][6]

Molly may have purchased Banneka to help establish a farm located near what eventually became Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, west of Baltimore.[7] One biographer has suggested that Banneka may have been a member of the Dogon tribe that were reported to have knowledge of astronomy.[8] Molly supposedly freed and married Banneka, who may have shared his knowledge of astronomy with her.[9] Although born after Banneka's death, Benjamin may have acquired some knowledge of astronomy from Molly.[8]

In 1737, Banneker was named at the age of 6 on the deed of his family's 100-acre (0.40 km2) farm in the Patapsco River valley in rural Baltimore County.[10][11] He lived on the farm for nearly all of his life.

As a young teenager, Banneker met and befriended Peter Heinrichs, a Quaker who established a school near the Banneker farm.[12] Quakers were leaders in the anti-slavery movement and advocates of racial equality (see Quakers in the Abolition Movement and Testimony of equality).[13] Heinrichs shared his personal library and provided Banneker with his only classroom instruction.[12] Banneker's formal education ended when he was old enough to help on his family's farm.[14]

Notable works

In 1753 at the age of 22, Banneker completed a wooden clock that struck on the hour. He appears to have modeled his clock from a borrowed pocket watch by carving each piece to scale. The clock continued to work until Banneker's death.[14][15][16]

After his father died in 1759, Banneker lived with his mother and sisters. In 1771, the Ellicott family moved to the area and bought land along the Patapsco Falls near Banneker's farm on which to develop a gristmill.[10][17] Banneker supplied their workers with food and studied the mills.[17] The Ellicotts were Quakers and shared the same views on racial equality as did many of their faith. George Ellicott loaned Banneker books and equipment to begin a more formal study of astronomy in 1788.[18] The following year, Banneker sent George his work calculating a solar eclipse.[19]

In February 1791, Major Andrew Ellicott, a member of the same family, hired Banneker to assist in the initial survey of the boundaries of the new federal district, which the 1790 federal Residence Act and later legislation authorized. Formed from land along the Potomac River that the states of Maryland and Virginia ceded to the federal government of the United States in accordance with the Residence Act, the territory that became the original District of Columbia was a square measuring 10 miles (16 km) on each side, totaling 100 square miles (260 km2).[20][21] Ellicott's team placed boundary stones at every mile point along the borders of the new capital territory.[20]

Banneker's duties on the survey consisted primarily of making astronomical observations at Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia, to ascertain the location of the starting point for the survey.[22] He also maintained a clock that he used to relate points on the ground to the positions of stars at specific times.[22] However, at age 59, Banneker left the boundary survey in April 1791 due to illness and difficulties completing the survey.[23] He returned to his home at Ellicott's Mills to work on an ephemeris. Andrew Ellicott continued the survey with his brothers Benjamin and Joseph Ellicott and other assistants through 1791 and 1792.[20][24]

Title page of an edition of Banneker's 1792 almanac.[25]

At Ellicott's Mills, Banneker made astronomical calculations that predicted solar and lunar eclipses for inclusion in his ephemeris. He placed the 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: Baltimore; Philadelphia; Wilmington, Delaware; Alexandria, Virginia; Petersburg, Virginia; and Richmond, Virginia.[25][26][27] He also kept a series of journals that contained his notebooks for astronomical observations, his diary and accounts of his dreams.[28] The journals, only one of which survived a fire on the day of his funeral, additionally contained a number of mathematical calculations and puzzles.[28][29] The surviving journal documents the 1749, 1766 and 1783 emergences of Brood X of the seventeen-year periodical cicada, Magicicada septendecim, and predicts an emergence in 1800.[30] The journal also records Banneker's observations on the hives and behavior of honey bees.[31]

The title page of an edition of Banneker's 1792 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris stated that the publication contained:

the Motions of the Sun and Moon, the True Places and Aspects of the Planets, the Rising and Setting of the Sun, Place and Age of the Moon, &c.—The Lunations, Conjunctions, Eclipses, Judgment of the Weather, Festivals, and other remarkable Days; Days for holding the Supreme and Circuit Courts of the United States, as also the useful Courts in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Also—several useful Tables, and valuable Receipts.—Various Selections from the Commonplace–Book of the Kentucky Philosopher, an American Sage; with interesting and entertaining Essays, in Prose and Verse—the whole comprising a greater, more pleasing, and useful Variety than any Work of the Kind and Price in North America.[25][32]

In addition to the information that its title page described, the almanac contained a tide table for the Chesapeake Bay region. That edition and others listed times for high water or high tide at Cape Charles and Point Lookout, Virginia and Annapolis and Baltimore, Maryland.[1]

Woodcut portrait of Benjamin Bannaker (Banneker) in title page of a Baltimore edition of his 1795 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac[33]

In his 1793 almanac, Banneker included letters sent between Thomas Jefferson and himself.[26] The title page of a Baltimore edition of his 1795 almanac had a woodcut portrait of him as he may have appeared, but which a writer later concluded was more likely a portrayal of an idealized African American youth.[33][34]

The almanacs' editors prefaced the publications with adulatory references to Banneker and his race.[35] The 1792 and 1793 almanacs contained lengthy commendations that James McHenry,[36] a signer of the United States Constitution and self-described friend of Banneker, had written in 1791.[37] A 1796 edition stated:

Not you ye proud, impute to these the blame
If Afric's sons to genius are unknown,
For Banneker has prov'd they may acquire a name,
As bright, as lasting, as your own.[26][38]

Supported by Andrew, George and Elias Ellicott and heavily promoted by the Society for the Promotion of the Abolition of Slavery of Maryland and of Pennsylvania, the early editions of the almanacs achieved commercial success.[39] After these editions were published, William Wilberforce and other prominent abolitionists praised Banneker and his works in the House of Commons of Great Britain.[39]

Political views

Banneker expressed his views on slavery and racial equality in a letter to Thomas Jefferson and in other documents that he placed within his 1793 almanac. The almanac 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.[26]

Banneker's 1793 almanac also contained a copy of "A Plan of Peace-office for the United States" that Benjamin Rush had authored.[40] The Plan proposed the appointment of a "Secretary of Peace", described the Secretary's powers and advocated federal support and promotion of the Christian religion. The Plan stated:

1. Let a Secretary of Peace be appointed to preside in this office; ...; let him be a genuine republican and a sincere Christian ....
2. Let a power be given to the Secretary to establish and maintain free schools in every city, village and township in the United States; ... Let the youth of our country be instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in the doctrines of a religion of some kind; the Christian religion should be preferred to all others; for it belongs to this religion exclusively to teach us not only to cultivate peace with all men, but to forgive—nay more, to love our very enemies....
3. Let every family be furnished at public expense, by the Secretary of this office, with an American edition of the Bible....
4. Let the following sentence be inscribed in letters of gold over the door of every home in the United States: The Son of Man Came into the World, Not To Destroy Men's Lives, But To Save Them.
5. ...[41]

Correspondence with Thomas Jefferson

On August 19, 1791, after departing the federal capital area, Banneker wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson, who in 1776 had drafted the United States Declaration of Independence and in 1791 was serving as the United States Secretary of State.[42][43] Quoting language in the Declaration, the letter expressed a plea for justice for African Americans. To further support this plea, Banneker included within the letter a handwritten manuscript of an almanac for 1792 containing his ephemeris with his astronomical calculations.

In the letter, Banneker accused Jefferson of criminally using fraud and violence to oppress his slaves by stating:

…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.[44]

The letter ended:

And now, Sir, I shall conclude, and subscribe myself, with the most profound respect,
Your most obedient humble servant,
BENJAMIN BANNEKER.[45]

An English abolitionist, Thomas Day, had earlier written in a 1776 letter:

If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves.[46]

Thomas Jefferson's own actions and statements on slavery and on the treatment of slaves were ambiguous and paradoxical (see: Thomas Jefferson and slavery).[47] He reportedly instructed overseers at his home at Monticello to not whip his slaves, but the overseers often ignored his wishes during his frequent absences.[48] A researcher has found no reliable document that portrays Jefferson in the act of applying physical correction.[49]

Without directly responding to Banneker's accusation, Jefferson replied to Banneker's letter in a series of nuanced statements that expressed his interest in the advancement of the equality of America's black population.[50] Jefferson's reply stated:

Philadelphia Aug. 30. 1791.
Sir,
I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th. instant and for the Almanac it contained. 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 the other colours of men, & that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa & America. I can add with truth that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising the condition both of their body & mind to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecillity of their present existence, and other circumstance which cannot be neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your almanac to Monsieur de Condorcet, Secretary of the Academy of sciences at Paris, and member of the Philanthropic society because I considered it as a document to which your whole colour had a right for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them. I am with great esteem, Sir,
Your most obedt. humble servt.
Th. Jefferson[51][52]

Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet, to whom Jefferson sent Banneker's almanac, was a noted French mathematician and abolitionist.[53] It appears that the Academy of Sciences itself did not receive the almanac.[54]

When writing his letter, Banneker informed Jefferson that his 1791 work with Andrew Ellicott on the District boundary survey had affected his work on his 1792 ephemeris and almanac by stating:

.... And although I had almost declined to make my calculation for the ensuing year, in consequence of that time which I had allotted therefor, being taken up at the Federal Territory, by the request of Mr. Andrew Ellicott, ....[45][55]

On the same day that he replied to Banneker (August 30, 1791), Jefferson sent a letter to the Marquis de Condorcet that contained the following paragraph relating to Banneker's race, abilities, almanac and work with Andrew Ellicott:

I am happy to be able to inform you that we have now in the United States a negro, the son of a black man born in Africa, and of a black woman born in the United States, who is a very respectable Mathematician. I promised him to be employed under one of our chief directors in laying out the new federal city on the Patowmac, & in the intervals of his leisure, while on that work, he made an almanac for the next year, which he sent to me in his own handwriting, & which I inclose to you. I have seen very elegant solutions of Geometrical problems by him. add to this that he is a very respectable member of society. he is a free man. I shall be delighted to see these instances of moral eminence so multiplied as to prove that the want of talent observed in them is merely the effect of their degraded condition, and not proceeding from any difference in the structure of the parts on which intellect depends.[56]

In 1809, three years after Banneker's death, Jefferson expressed a different opinion of Banneker in a letter to Joel Barlow that criticized a "diatribe" that a French abolitionist, Henri Grégoire, had written in 1808:[57]

The whole do not amount, in point of evidence, to what we know ourselves of Banneker. We know he had spherical trigonometry enough to make almanacs, but not without the suspicion of aid from Ellicot, who was his neighbor and friend, and never missed an opportunity of puffing him. I have a long letter from Banneker, which shows him to have had a mind of very common stature indeed.[34][58]

Death

Banneker never married.[10] Because of declining sales, his last almanac was published in 1797. After selling much of his farm to the Ellicotts and others, he died in his log cabin nine years later on October 9, 1806,[59] exactly one month before his 75th birthday. His chronic alcoholism, which worsened as he aged, may have contributed to his death.[60]

An obituary 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.[59]

A commemorative obelisk that the Maryland Bicentennial Commission and the State Commission on Afro American History and Culture erected in 1977 near his unmarked grave stands in the yard of the Mt. Gilboa African Methodist Episcopal Church in Oella, Maryland (see Mount Gilboa Chapel).[61]

Banneker artifacts

On the day of his funeral in 1806, a fire burned Banneker's log cabin to the ground, destroying many of his belongings and papers.[1][62][63] A member of the Elllicott family, which had retained Banneker's only remaining journal, donated the document and other Banneker manuscripts to the Maryland Historical Society in 1987.[64] The family also retained several items that Banneker had used after borrowing them from George Ellicott.[62][65]

In 1996, a descendent of George Ellicott decided to sell at auction some of the items, including a table, candlesticks and molds.[62][66] Although supporters of the planned Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum in Oella, Maryland, had hoped to obtain these and several other items related to Banneker and the Ellicotts, a Virginia investment banker won most of the items with a series of bids that totaled $55,250. The purchaser stated that he expected to keep some of the items and to donate the rest to the planned African American Civil War Memorial museum in Washington, D.C.[67]

In 1997, it was announced that the artifacts would be loaned to the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum in Oella and to the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis, Maryland.[68] After receiving the artifacts, the Oella museum placed the table and the candle molds into an exhibit.[69]

Mythology and legacy

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Main article: Mythology and legacy of Benjamin Banneker

A substantial mythology exaggerating Benjamin Banneker's accomplishments has developed during the two centuries that have elapsed since he lived.[70][71] Several such urban legends describe Banneker's alleged activities in the Washington, D.C. area around the time that he assisted Andrew Ellicott in the federal district boundary survey.[23][71][72] Others involve his clock, his almanacs and his journals.[71]

A United States postage stamp and the names of a number of recreational and cultural facilities, schools, streets and other facilities and institutions throughout the United States have commemorated Banneker's documented and mythical accomplishments throughout the years since he lived.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bedini, 2008
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ (1) Banneker, Benjamin (August 19, 1791): "Sir, I freely and cheerfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race, and in that color which is natural to them of the deepest dye; ....". In Image of page 6 in "COPY OF A LETTER FROM BENJAMIN BANNEKER, &c. Maryland, Baltimore County, August 19, 1791", in Copy of a letter from Benjamin Banneker to the secretary of state, with his answer., p. 6. Printed and sold by Daniel Lawrence, no. 33. North Fourth-Street, near Race. Philadelphia M.DCC.XCII. (1792) in official website of University of Virginia Library. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
    (2) McHenry, James (April 20, 1791): "Benjamin Banneker, a free black, is about fifty nine years in age; he was born in Baltimore county; his father was an African, and his mother, the offspring of African parents." In Letter from James McHenry regarding Benjamin Banneker (Baltimore: April 20, 1791) in Phillips, p. 115.
    (3) Latrobe, John H. B., Esq. (1845): "His father was a native African, and his mother the child of natives of Africa; so that to no admixture of the blood of the white man was he indebted for his peculiar and extraordinary abilities." In Latrobe, p. 6.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Full text (PDF)
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Tyson
  7. ↑ Toscano
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Cerami, pp. 7, 15
  9. ↑ Corrigan
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. At Google Books.
  11. ↑ (1) Glawe
    “Richard Gist
    1737
    Robert Bannaky
    Benjamin Bannaky
    +conveyance+

    This indenture made this tenth day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred thirty seven between Richard Gist of Baltimore County in the province of Maryland grant of the one part, Robert Bannaky and Benjamin Bannaky this now of the County and province aforementioned of the other part, Witnesseth that the deed Richard Gist for and in consideration of the sum of seven thousand pounds of tobacco whence paid to the said Richard Gist the receipt whereof he do able by these presents acquits and discharges them the said Robert Bannaky and Benjamin Bannaky his son thereon heirs and assign for over one hundred acres of land lying in the said county circumscribed by the bounds hereafter by profit being the moiety of a hundred acres of land.
    J. Wells Stokes”
    (2) Facsimile of handwritten deed conveying property from Richard Gist to Robert Bannaky and Benjamin Bannaky. In Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Cerami, pp. 24-26
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Latrobe, p. 7.
  15. ↑ Bedini, 1999, p. 42.
  16. ↑ (1) Tyson, pp. 5, 9-10, 14, 18.
    (2) Bedini, 1964, p. 22.
    (3) Bedini, 2008
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Williams, p. 387.
  18. ↑ Williams, p. 389
  19. ↑ Letter of Benjamin Banneker to George Ellicott. In Williams, p. 389.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 (1) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ (1) Bedini, 1999, p. 113.
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (3) Crew, pp. 87–103
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Bedini, 1999, pp. 118–121
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Bedini, 1999, p. 136.
  24. ↑ Bedini, 1999, pp. 132–136
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Image in Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ (1) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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    (9) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. In Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (10) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (11) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. In website of the Library Company of Philadelphia.
    (12) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (13) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (14) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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    (16) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ (1) Bedini, 1999, pp. 340–343.
    (2) Tyson, pp. 17-18
    (3) Williams, p. 398
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    (5) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  30. ↑ (1) Latrobe, pp. 11-12.
    (2) Bedini, 1999, p. 264.
    (3) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Latrobe, p. 12.
  32. ↑ Note: Obsolete alphabetization in the original title page was translated in this quotation to alphabetization that was in common use in 2009.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Woodcut portrait of Benjamin Bannaker (Banneker) in Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. In Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Bedini, 1999, p. 297
  35. ↑ Latrobe, p. 9: "In their editorial notice, Messrs. Goddard and Angell say, "they feel gratified in the opportunity of presenting to the public, through their press, what must be considered as an extraordinary effort of genius — a complete and accurate Ephemeris for the year 1792, calculated by a sable descendant of Africa," &c. And they further say, that "they flatter themselves that a philanthropic public, in this enlightened era, will be induced to give their patronage and support to this work, not only on account of its intrinsic merits, (it having met the approbation of several of the most distinguished astronomers of America, particularly the celebrated Mr. Rittenhouse,) but from similar motives to those which induced the editors to give this calculation the preference, the ardent desire of drawing modest merit from obscurity and controverting the long established illiberal prejudice against the blacks."
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ (1) Letter from James McHenry regarding Benjamin Banneker (Baltimore: April 20, 1791) in Phillips, pp. 115-116.
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. At Google Books.
  38. ↑ Bedini, 1999, p. 339
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 Bedini, 1999, pp. 185–190
  40. ↑ (1) Phillips, p. 116-119
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (3) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (4) Bedini, 1999, p.190
  41. ↑ (1) Phillips, pp. 116-117
    (2) Bedini, 1999, pp. 335–337
  42. ↑ (1) "COPY OF A LETTER FROM BENJAMIN BANNEKER, &c. Maryland, Baltimore County, August 19, 1791", in Copy of a letter from Benjamin Banneker to the secretary of state, with his answer., pp. 3–10. Printed and sold by Daniel Lawrence, no. 33. North Fourth-Street, near Race. Philadelphia M.DCC.XCII. (1792) in official website of University of Virginia Library. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (3) Bedini, 1999, p. 163
  43. ↑ Biography of Thomas Jefferson in official website of the White House. Retrieved 2009-08-23.
  44. ↑ Image of page 8 in "COPY OF A LETTER FROM BENJAMIN BANNEKER, &c. Maryland, Baltimore County, August 19, 1791", in Copy of a letter from Benjamin Banneker to the secretary of state, with his answer., p. 8. Printed and sold by Daniel Lawrence, no. 33. North Fourth-Street, near Race. Philadelphia M.DCC.XCII. (1792) in official website of University of Virginia Library. Retrieved 2010-06-18.
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 Image of page 10 in "COPY OF A LETTER FROM BENJAMIN BANNEKER, &c. Maryland, Baltimore County, August 19, 1791", in Copy of a letter from Benjamin Banneker to the secretary of state, with his answer., p. 10. Printed and sold by Daniel Lawrence, no. 33. North Fourth-Street, near Race. Philadelphia M.DCC.XCII. (1792) in official website of University of Virginia Library. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
  46. ↑ (1) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. At: Internet Archive: The Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries: James Birney Collection of Antislavery Pamphlets.
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. At Google Books.
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ (1) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  51. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  52. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  53. ↑ (1) "Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet" in official website of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2009-11-23.
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  54. ↑ Bedini, 1999, pp. 163, 168
  55. ↑ Image of page 9 in "COPY OF A LETTER FROM BENJAMIN BANNEKER, &c. Maryland, Baltimore County, August 19, 1791", in Copy of a letter from Benjamin Banneker to the secretary of state, with his answer., p. 9. Printed and sold by Daniel Lawrence, no. 33. North Fourth-Street, near Race. Philadelphia M.DCC.XCII. (1792) in official website of University of Virginia Library. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
  56. ↑ (1) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Image of letter in Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Image of letter in Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  57. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    English translation: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  58. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  59. ↑ 59.0 59.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. From Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  60. ↑ (1) Tyson, p. 10 and p. 12
    (2) Bedini,1999, pp. 253–254
  61. ↑ (1) "Benjamin Banneker" marker in website of hmdb.org: The Historical Marker Database. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (3) Coordinates of Benjamim Banneker obelisk: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  62. ↑ 62.0 62.1 62.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  63. ↑ Tyson p. 18
  64. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  65. ↑ Tyson, pp. 17-18
  66. ↑ (1) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (3) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  67. ↑ (1) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  68. ↑ (1) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (3) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  69. ↑ (1) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (2) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  70. ↑ (1) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (2) Cerami, p. 142., "(Banneker) has existed in dim memory mainly on mangled ideas about his work, and even utter falsehoods that are unwise attempts to glorify a man who needs no such embellishment. ........
    (3) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  71. ↑ 71.0 71.1 71.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. At Google Books.
  72. ↑ (1) Bedini, 1970, p. 7. "The name of Benjamin Banneker, the Afro-American self-taught mathematician and almanac-maker, occurs again and again in the several published accounts of the survey of Washington City begun in 1791, but with conflicting reports of the role which he played. Writers have implied a wide range of involvement, from the keeper of horses or supervisor of the woodcutters, to the full responsibility of not only the survey of the ten mile square but the design of the city as well. None of these accounts has described the contribution which Banneker actually made."
    (2) Cerami, pp. 142-143.
    (3) Murdock
    (4) Toscano
    (5) Fasanelli, Florence D, "Benjamin Banneker's Life and Mathematics: Web of Truth? Legends as Facts; Man vs. Legend," a talk given on January 8, 2004, at the MAA/AMS meeting in Phoenix, AZ. Cited in Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (6) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    (7) Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

References

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.. At Internet Archive.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. At boundarystones.org
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Google Books.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. At Google Books.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. At Internet Archive and Open Library: eBooks and Texts.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. At Google Books.

External links

  • Lua error in Module:Internet_Archive at line 573: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
  • Works by Benjamin Banneker at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.. (May 2000)
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