Nov. 9 ~ Benjamin Banneker Day
I had returned to the east coast in July of this year to watch a high-school buddy wrestle in an amateur tournament on the beautiful white sandy beaches near Point Pleasant, New Jersey. We re-connected with my sister and another classmate / good buddy, on that beach, that day. Then, prior to returning to my new home in Austin, I went to visit my niece and her partner, who the year before had moved into a new house in Caytonsville, Maryland.
I'd heard long ago of Benjamin Banneker: this legendary, 18th-century, African-American man, but had mostly forgotten about him until this recent visit to my niece's place, situated in the immediate vicinity where Banneker was born and spent most of his life.
Born free in 1731 in Ellicott's Mills (opposite what would become Ellicott City) to Mary (a free woman), and Robert Bannaky (a freed slave from Guinea), he would become a consummate autodidact: almost entirely self-educated. His neighbor, George Ellicott, whose family had built and owned mills nearby, had noticed Banneker's curiosity and loaned him all manner of books, including ones on astronomy.
Although he died before Banneker was born, it's possible that his mother's father, named Banneka, a freed slave and said to be of the Dogon people, passed down through his daughter (Mary) his own interest in and love of astronomy. Banneker's mastery of astronomy allowed him to predict solar and lunar eclipses, which became an important staple in the series of almanacs he published annually in the latter part of the 1790s. Appearing in several American cities, these brought him a measure of renown, as well as commercial success.
Around the age of 21, Banneker constructed one of the first clocks in the new world, one he'd modeled from a pocket watch by carving each piece to scale. It chimed on the hour and was still in good working order decades later. He would become known, centuries later, as the first African-American scientist.
The knowledge he gained of math and science led him also to become proficient in surveying, which in turn led to Thomas Jefferson's recommending him for assistance with the planning and laying out the 10 square miles of the Federal City (what would become the nation's capital), land which Maryland and Virginia had ceded for the project.
In what has been called the "first publicly documented protest letter," Banneker wrote to Jefferson in 1791, and explicitly pointed out his hypocrisy on the slavery issue. While Jefferson had been pre-occupied with proper ideas of the great valuation of liberty, he was simultaneously detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression. Jefferson responded that no one wanted more than he did a "system" for improving the mind and body of our black brethren ... as fast as the imbecillity of their present existence ... will admit.
In his first almanac of 1792, Banneker recommended that a US Dept. of Peace be established, which finally the US Congress created, in 1984. The US Institute of Peace had once acknowledged on its website Banneker's role (along with that of a Dr. Benjamin Rush) in its formation, but their website these days omits all mention of this part of the agency's history. (I've asked them why this history does not appear in their About section, but so far have received no reply.)
He never married, and was not known to have had liaisons with women. He lived under the supervision of staunchly Christian relatives, and read the Bible daily. Was he gay? His having written that poverty, disease, and violence are more tolerable than the pungent stings…which guilty passions dart into the heart has led some biographers to claim that he may have preferred the company of men. We'll never know.
Banneker was nearly 75 when he died on Oct. 19, 1806. The fact that, at the same moments his body was being laid to rest, his house was going up in flames -- destroying much of his work and his writings -- suggests that at least a few arsonist-racists of his time were determined to erase the memory of as much of his life and his work as they could, behavior befitting the backward bastards they undoubtedly were.
The fires that destroyed his home took from us all his many journals except for one, which included astronomical observations, his diary, accounts of his dreams, and his observations of a species of N. American cicada; his prediction that they would again be seen in 1800 established the fact of that species' 17-year life cycle.
That Banneker learned so much, as a black man in such a racist country; that he chose to share what he'd learned through publication of his almanacs; that he called out one of the most powerful of his white countrymen (the Secretary of State, and soon-to-be third President, Jefferson) for his hypocritical adherence to slavery; for his involvement with the laying out of the nation's capital; and for so much more, we are bound to honor the life of this great man, and what it says about what we all might hope to accomplish with the time and life we ourselves have been gifted with.
Every year on November 9, people all over Maryland, the District of Columbia, and perhaps some other places as well, celebrate the birth of this remarkable man, Benjamin Banneker.
And now, I do, too.
--
Further Reading
There's tons of information out there about this fascinating man.
Among a couple of the many sites I perused, I particularly liked these two:
From Cerami's preface: The fact that other, more venomous enemies burned down the scientist’s cabin and all his papers at the moment of his funeral makes it daunting to attempt a full and responsible biography. The lost journals of his youthful years would have helped to pierce the obscurity that cloaked all black persons in that day. As it is, the series of early snapshots we are able to see helps to intensify his emergence as a vibrant person when all his gifts come into view. Indeed, many white persons became great admirers and sought him out for his wise counsel. The challenge of making this most remarkable early American known to today’s more enlightened readership is exhilarating. And the fact that his life ran a course opposite that of most human stories, gathering force and joy as he grew older, adds to the pleasure of describing it.
I'd heard long ago of Benjamin Banneker: this legendary, 18th-century, African-American man, but had mostly forgotten about him until this recent visit to my niece's place, situated in the immediate vicinity where Banneker was born and spent most of his life.
Born free in 1731 in Ellicott's Mills (opposite what would become Ellicott City) to Mary (a free woman), and Robert Bannaky (a freed slave from Guinea), he would become a consummate autodidact: almost entirely self-educated. His neighbor, George Ellicott, whose family had built and owned mills nearby, had noticed Banneker's curiosity and loaned him all manner of books, including ones on astronomy.
Although he died before Banneker was born, it's possible that his mother's father, named Banneka, a freed slave and said to be of the Dogon people, passed down through his daughter (Mary) his own interest in and love of astronomy. Banneker's mastery of astronomy allowed him to predict solar and lunar eclipses, which became an important staple in the series of almanacs he published annually in the latter part of the 1790s. Appearing in several American cities, these brought him a measure of renown, as well as commercial success.
Around the age of 21, Banneker constructed one of the first clocks in the new world, one he'd modeled from a pocket watch by carving each piece to scale. It chimed on the hour and was still in good working order decades later. He would become known, centuries later, as the first African-American scientist.
The knowledge he gained of math and science led him also to become proficient in surveying, which in turn led to Thomas Jefferson's recommending him for assistance with the planning and laying out the 10 square miles of the Federal City (what would become the nation's capital), land which Maryland and Virginia had ceded for the project.
In what has been called the "first publicly documented protest letter," Banneker wrote to Jefferson in 1791, and explicitly pointed out his hypocrisy on the slavery issue. While Jefferson had been pre-occupied with proper ideas of the great valuation of liberty, he was simultaneously detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression. Jefferson responded that no one wanted more than he did a "system" for improving the mind and body of our black brethren ... as fast as the imbecillity of their present existence ... will admit.
 | ||
| 1980 stamp (Jerry Pinkney) |
He never married, and was not known to have had liaisons with women. He lived under the supervision of staunchly Christian relatives, and read the Bible daily. Was he gay? His having written that poverty, disease, and violence are more tolerable than the pungent stings…which guilty passions dart into the heart has led some biographers to claim that he may have preferred the company of men. We'll never know.
Banneker was nearly 75 when he died on Oct. 19, 1806. The fact that, at the same moments his body was being laid to rest, his house was going up in flames -- destroying much of his work and his writings -- suggests that at least a few arsonist-racists of his time were determined to erase the memory of as much of his life and his work as they could, behavior befitting the backward bastards they undoubtedly were.
The fires that destroyed his home took from us all his many journals except for one, which included astronomical observations, his diary, accounts of his dreams, and his observations of a species of N. American cicada; his prediction that they would again be seen in 1800 established the fact of that species' 17-year life cycle.
That Banneker learned so much, as a black man in such a racist country; that he chose to share what he'd learned through publication of his almanacs; that he called out one of the most powerful of his white countrymen (the Secretary of State, and soon-to-be third President, Jefferson) for his hypocritical adherence to slavery; for his involvement with the laying out of the nation's capital; and for so much more, we are bound to honor the life of this great man, and what it says about what we all might hope to accomplish with the time and life we ourselves have been gifted with.
Every year on November 9, people all over Maryland, the District of Columbia, and perhaps some other places as well, celebrate the birth of this remarkable man, Benjamin Banneker.
And now, I do, too.
--
Further Reading
There's tons of information out there about this fascinating man.
Among a couple of the many sites I perused, I particularly liked these two:
- A Memorial to America's First Black Man of Science
- Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot, by Charles Cerami (©️ 2002)
From Cerami's preface: The fact that other, more venomous enemies burned down the scientist’s cabin and all his papers at the moment of his funeral makes it daunting to attempt a full and responsible biography. The lost journals of his youthful years would have helped to pierce the obscurity that cloaked all black persons in that day. As it is, the series of early snapshots we are able to see helps to intensify his emergence as a vibrant person when all his gifts come into view. Indeed, many white persons became great admirers and sought him out for his wise counsel. The challenge of making this most remarkable early American known to today’s more enlightened readership is exhilarating. And the fact that his life ran a course opposite that of most human stories, gathering force and joy as he grew older, adds to the pleasure of describing it.
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