Benjamin Banneker

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Benjamin Banneker

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Benjamin Banneker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Benjamin Banneker
Born November 9, 1731
Baltimore County, Province of Maryland, British America
Died October 9, 1806 (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 federalResidence 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 brothersBenjamin 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, anAmerican 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 1795Pennsylvania, 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

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 legendsdescribe 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

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Notes

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b c Bedini, 2008
  2. Jump up^ “”Robert Bannaky” marker”, HMdb: The Historical Marker Database, retrieved 2015-09-06
  3. Jump up^ (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) inofficial 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.” InLatrobe, p. 6.
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Perot, Sandra W. (2008). “Reconstructing Molly Welsh: Race, Memory and the Story of Benjamin Banneker’s Grandmother. Masters Theses. Paper 2 (Introduction and abstract)”. ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Amherst. pp. 5, 19–21, 33–36, 67. Archived from the original on 2015-09-29. Retrieved 2015-11-15.Full text (PDF)
  5. Jump up^ Russell, George Ely (December 2006). “Molly Welsh: Alleged Grandmother of Benjamin Banneker”. National Genealogical Society Quarterly (National Genealogical Society) 94 (4): 305–314. ISSN 0027-934X.LCCN 17012813. OCLC 50612104.
  6. Jump up^ Tyson
  7. Jump up^ Toscano
  8. ^ Jump up to:a b Cerami, pp. 7, 15
  9. Jump up^ Corrigan
  10. ^ Jump up to:a b c Hurry, Robert J. (2007). Hockey, Thomas, ed.Banneker, Benjamin. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (New York: Springer). pp. 91–92.ISBN 9780387310220. OCLC 65764986. Retrieved2015-01-24. At Google Books.
  11. Jump up^ (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. InClark, James W., Maryland Commission on Afro-American and Indian History and Culture, Annapolis, Maryland (1976-06-14). “Benjamin Banneker Homesite” (PDF). Maryland State Historical Trust: Inventory Form for State Historic Sites Survey. Annapolis, Maryland: Maryland State Archives. p. 16. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-08-18. Retrieved 2015-11-15.

  12. ^ Jump up to:a b Cerami, pp. 24-26
  13. Jump up^ “Quakers & Slavery”. Triptych: Tri-College Digital Library. Bryn Mawr College. Archived from the originalon 2014-04-19. Retrieved 2014-09-07. External link in|work= (help)
  14. ^ Jump up to:a b Latrobe, p. 7.
  15. Jump up^ Bedini, 1999, p. 42.
  16. Jump up^ (1) Tyson, pp. 5, 9–10, 14, 18.
    (2) Bedini, 1964, p. 22.
    (3) Bedini, 2008
  17. ^ Jump up to:a b Williams, p. 387.
  18. Jump up^ Williams, p. 389
  19. Jump up^ Letter of Benjamin Banneker to George Ellicott. InWilliams, p. 389.
  20. ^ Jump up to:a b c (1) “Boundary Stones of the District of Columbia”. boundarystones.org. Archived from the original on 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2014-01-27.
    (2) National Capital Planning Commission (1976). Boundary markers of the Nation’s Capital: a proposal for their preservation & protection : a National Capital Planning Commission Bicentennial report. Washington, D.C.: National Capital Planning Commission; For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office.
  21. Jump up^ (1) Bedini, 1999, p. 113.
    (2) “Text of Residence Act”. American Memory. Library of Congress. Retrieved 2009-04-15. External link in|publisher=, |work= (help)
    (3) Crew, pp. 87–103
  22. ^ Jump up to:a b Bedini, 1999, pp. 118–121
  23. ^ Jump up to:a b Bedini, 1999, p. 136.
  24. Jump up^ Bedini, 1999, pp. 132–136
  25. ^ Jump up to:a b c Banneker, Benjamin (1791). Title Page. Benjamin Banneker’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and EPHEMERIS, for the YEAR of our LORD, 1792; Being BISEXTILE, or LEAP-YEAR, and the Sixteenth Year of AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, which commmenced July 4, 1776 (Baltimore: Printed and sold, Wholesale and Retail, by William Goddard and James Angell, at their printing-office, in Market-Street.– Sold, also, by Mr. Joseph Crukshank, Printer, in Market-Street, and Mr. Daniel Humphreys, Printer, in South-Front-Street, Philadelphia–and by Messrs. Hanson and Bond, Printers, in Alexandria).OCLC 62824558. Archived from the original on 2013-05-28. Retrieved 2014-08-28. Image in “American Memory”. Library of Congress. External link in|publisher= (help)
  26. ^ Jump up to:a b c d “Benjamin Banneker’s Almanac, 1795″. Africans in America. PBS. Archived from the original on 2011-12-06. Retrieved 2015-01-23. External link in |work= (help)
  27. Jump up^ (1) Banneker, Benjamin (1792). Benjamin Banneker’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia almanack and ephemeris, for the year of our Lord, 1793. Baltimore: Printed and sold, wholesale and retail, by William Goddard and James Angell, at their printing-office, in Market-Street.OCLC 62824560.
    (2) Banneker, Benjamin (1792). Banneker’s almanack, and ephemeris for the year of our Lord 1793. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by Joseph Crukshank, No. 87, High-Street.OCLC 62824553.
    (3) Banneker, Bejamin (1793). Banneker’s almanack, and ephemeris for the year of our Lord 1794. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by Joseph Crukshank, No. 87, High-Street.OCLC 62824554.
    (4) Banneker, Benjamin (1793). Benjamin Banneker’s almanac, for the year of our Lord, 1794. Philadelphia: Printed by William Young, No. 52, Second-street, the corner of Chesnut-street. OCLC 226246930.
    (5) Banneker, Benjamin (1793). Benjamin Banneker’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia almanack and ephemeris, for the year of our Lord, 1794. Baltimore: Printed and sold, wholesale and retail, by James Angell, at his printing-office, in Market-Street. OCLC 62824561.
    (6) Banneker, Benjamin (1793). The Virginia almanack, for the year of our Lord, 1794. Petersburg Va.: Printed by William Prentis. OCLC 62840340.
    (7) Banneker, Benjamin (1794). Bannaker’s Wilmington almanac, or ephemeris, for the year of our Lord 1795 ... Wilmington Del.: Printed by S. & J. Adams, for Frederick Craig. OCLC 62824551.
    (8) Bannaker, Benjamin (1794). Title Page. Bannaker’s New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanac or Ephemeris For the Year of our LORD 1795; Being the Third after Leap-Year; — the Nineteenth Year of American Independence, and the Seventh of our Federal Government (Wilmington, Delaware: Printed by S.& J. Adams). OCLC 62824555. Archived from the originalon 2013-12-24. Retrieved 2014-08-28. In “Thomas Jefferson Exhibition”. Library of Congress. 2010-07-27. Archived from the original on 2014-07-07. Retrieved 2014-08-28.
    (9) Bannaker, Benjamin (1794). Title Page. Benjamin Bannaker’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia ALMANAC for the YEAR of our LORD 1795; Being the Third after Leap-Year (Baltimore: Printed for And Sold by John Fisher, Stationer). OCLC 62824557. Archived from the original on 2001-12-11. Retrieved 2015-01-23. In“Benjamin Banneker’s Almanac, 1795″. Africans in America. PBS. Archived from the original on 2001-12-06. Retrieved 2015-01-23. External link in |work= (help)
    (10) Banneker, Benjamin (1794). Benjamin Bannaker’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia almanac, for the year of our Lord 1795. Philadelphia: Printed for William Gibbons, Cherry Street. OCLC 62824556.
    (11) Bannaker, Benjamin (1794). Title Page. Bannaker’s New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanac, or Ephemeris, for the Year of our LORD 1795; Being the Third after Leap-Year (Baltimore, Maryland: Printed by S. & J. Adams). OCLC 62824547. Archived from the original on 2014-08-13. Retrieved 2014-08-24. Inwebsite of the Library Company of Philadelphia.
    (12) Banneker, Benjamin (1794). Banneker’s almanac, for the year 1795: Containing, (besides every thing necessary in an almanac,) an account of the yellow fever, lately prevalent in Philadelphia, with the number of those who died, from the first of August till the ninth of November, 1793. Philadelphia: Printed for William Young, bookseller, no. 52, the corner of Chesnut and Second-Streets.OCLC 62824552.
    (13) Banneker, Benjamin (1795). Bannaker’s Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina almanack and ephemeris, for the year of our Lord 1796. Baltimore: Printed for Philip Edwards, James Keddie, and Thomas, Andrews and Butler; and sold at their respective stores, wholesale and retail. OCLC 62824546.
    (14) Banneker, Benjamin (1796). Bannaker’s Maryland and Virginia almanack and ephemeris, for the year of our Lord 1797. Baltimore: Printed by Christopher Jackson, for George Keatinge’s wholesale and retail book store, no. 140 Market-Street. OCLC 62824545.
    (15) Banneker, Benjamin (1796). Bannaker’s Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky almanack and ephemeris, for the year of our Lord 1797. Baltimore: Printed by Christopher Jackson, no. 67, Market-Street, for George Keatinge’s book-store. Copy right secured.OCLC 62824549.
    (16) Banneker, Benjamin (1796). Bannaker’s Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky almanack and ephemeris, for the year of our Lord 1797. Richmond: Printed by Samuel Pleasants, Jun. near the vendue office. By privilege. OCLC 62824550.
    (17) Banneker, Benjamin (1796). Bannaker’s Virginia and North Carolina almanack and ephemeris, for the year of our Lord 1797. Petersburg VA: Printed by William Prentis and William Y. i.e., T. Murray. OCLC 62824548.
  28. ^ Jump up to:a b Maryland Historical Society Library Department(2014-02-06), “The Dreams of Benjamin Banneker”,Underbelly, Maryland Historical Society, archived from the original on 2014-12-16, retrieved 2015-03-09
  29. Jump up^ (1) Bedini, 1999, pp. 340–343.
    (2) Tyson, pp. 17-18
    (3) Williams, p. 398
    (4) Fasanelli, Florence; Jagger, Graham; Lumpkin, Bea (June 2010). “Benjamin Banneker’s Trigonometry Puzzle”.Loci (Mathematical Association of America) 2. Archived from the original on 2014-02-06. Retrieved 2014-02-06.External link in |journal= (help)
    (5) Mahoney, John F. (July 2010). “Benjamin Banneker’s Inscribed Equilateral Triangle”. Loci (Mathematical Association of America) 2. Archived from the original on 2014-02-06. Retrieved 2014-02-06. External link in|journal= (help)
    (6) Mahoney, John F. (2014). “The Mathematical Puzzles of Benjamin Banneker”. AP Central. College Board. Archived from the original on 2014-02-07. Retrieved2014-02-06. External link in |work= (help)
  30. Jump up^ (1) Latrobe, pp. 11-12.
    (2) Bedini, 1999, p. 264.
    (3) Barber, Janet E.; Nkwanta, Asamoah (2014). “Benjamin Banneker’s Original Handwritten Document: Observations and Study of the Cicada”. Journal of Humanistic Mathematics 4 (1): 112–114.doi:10.5642/jhummath.201401.07. Retrieved 2014-08-26.
  31. Jump up^ Latrobe, p. 12.
  32. Jump up^ Note: Obsolete alphabetization in the original title page was translated in this quotation to alphabetization that was in common use in 2009.
  33. ^ Jump up to:a b Woodcut portrait of Benjamin Bannaker (Banneker) inBannaker, Benjamin (1794). Title Page. Benjamin Bannaker’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia ALMANAC for the YEAR of our LORD 1795; Being the Third after Leap-Year (Baltimore: Printed for And Sold by John Fisher, Stationer). OCLC 62824557. Archived from the original on 2011-12-11. Retrieved 2015-01-23. In“Benjamin Banneker’s Almanac, 1795″. Africans in America. PBS. 1995–2010. Archived from the originalon 2011-12-06. Retrieved 2014-01-23. External link in|work= (help)
  34. ^ Jump up to:a b Bedini, 1999, p. 297
  35. Jump up^ 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. Jump up^ United States Army Center of Military History. “James McHenry, Maryland” (PDF). Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution: A Bicentennial Series. National Park Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-11-05. Retrieved 2015-01-02.
  37. Jump up^ (1) Letter from James McHenry regarding Benjamin Banneker (Baltimore: April 20, 1791) in Phillips, pp. 115-116.
    (2) McHenry, James C. (Baltimore: August 20, 1791). “A letter from Mr. James McHenry, to messrs. Goddard and Angel,containing particulars respecting Benjamin Banneker, a free negro”. The American Museum, or Universal Magazine (September 1792) (Philadelphia: Mathew Carey): 185–187. Retrieved 2015-01-02. I consider this negro as a fresh proof that the powers of the mind are disconnected with the colour of the skin, or, in other words, a striking contradiction to mr. Hume’s doctrine, that “the negroes are naturally inferior to whites, and unsusceptible of attainments in the arts and sciences.” In every civilized country, we shall find thousands of whites, liberally educated, and who have enjoyed greater opportunities for instruction than this negro, his inferiors in those intellectual acquirements and capacities that form the most characteristic features in the human race. But the system that would assign to these degraded blacks, an origin different from the whites, if it is not ready to be deserted by philosophers, must be relinquished as similar instances multiply; and that such must frequently happen, cannot well be doubted, should no check impede the progress of humanity, which meliorating the conditions of slavery, necessarily leads to its final extinction.—Let, however, the issue be what it will, I cannot but wish, on this occasion, to see the public patronage keep pace with my black friend’s merit. At Google Books.
  38. Jump up^ Bedini, 1999, p. 339
  39. ^ Jump up to:a b Bedini, 1999, pp. 185–190
  40. Jump up^ (1) Phillips, p. 116-119
    (2) “Benjamin Banneker’s biography”. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Advameg, Inc. Retrieved 2009-12-14.External link in |work= (help)
    (3) Rush, Benjamin, M.D. (1806). “A plan of a Peace-Office for the United States”. Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical. (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Thomas and William Bradford. pp. 183–188. Retrieved 2010-06-03.
    (4) Bedini, 1999, p.190
  41. Jump up^ (1) Phillips, pp. 116-117
    (2) Bedini, 1999, pp. 335–337
  42. Jump up^ (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) “Banneker’s letter to Jefferson”. Africans in America.Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Retrieved2010-06-02. External link in |work= (help)
    (3) Bedini, 1999, p. 163
  43. Jump up^ Biography of Thomas Jefferson in official website of theWhite House. Retrieved 2009-08-23.
  44. Jump up^ 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) inofficial website of University of Virginia Library. Retrieved 2010-06-18.
  45. ^ Jump up to:a b 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) inofficial website of University of Virginia Library. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
  46. Jump up^ (1) Day, Thomas. Fragment of an original letter on the Slavery of the Negroes, written in the year 1776. London: Printed for John Stockdale (1784). Boston: Re-printed byGarrison and Knapp, at the office of “The Liberator” (1831). p. 10. Retrieved 2014-02-26. 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. At:Internet Archive: The Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries: James Birney Collection of Antislavery Pamphlets.
    (2) Armitage, David (2007). The Declaration Of Independence: A Global History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-674-02282-9. At Google Books.
  47. Jump up^ National Museum of African American History and Culture in Partnership with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello. “Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello – Paradox of Liberty: Exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture, January 27-October 14, 2012”. Charlottesville, Virginia:monticello.org. Archived from the original on 2012-05-06. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
  48. Jump up^ National Museum of African American History and Culture in Partnership with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello. “Life at the Monticello Plantation: Treatment”.Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello – Paradox of Liberty: Exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture, January 27-October 14, 2012. Charlottesville, Virginia: monticello.org. Archived from the original on 2012-05-06. Retrieved2012-05-06. Stating that it was his “first wish” that his slaves be “well treated,” Jefferson struggled to balance humane treatment with a need for profit. He tried to minimize the then-common use of harsh physical punishment and used financial incentives rather than force to encourage his artisans. He instructed his overseers not to whip his slaves, but his wishes were often ignored during his frequent absences from home.
  49. Jump up^ Stanton, Lucia (1993). “”Those who labor for my happiness”: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves”. In Onuf, Peter S. Jeffersonian Legacies. The University Press of Virginia. p. 158. ISBN 0-8139-1462-0.
  50. Jump up^ (1) “A Great Man, but Flawed”. The Washington Post (The Washington Post Company, Washington, D.C.). 1992-10-31. p. A.21. Retrieved 2010-05-17. … Wefald writes that when Jefferson received a letter and almanac from Benjamin Banneker, Jefferson was “honest enough to change his position.” Jefferson did not say that he had changed his opinion of the intellectual abilities of blacks. In his letter to Banneker, Aug. 30, 1791, Jefferson merely said: “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 colors 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.” Closely read, Jefferson’s letter is only an indication that he “wishes to see such proofs,” but there is no definite indication that he changed his mind. On Banneker’s abilities Jefferson was ambivalent. External link in |work= (help)
    (2) Johnson, Richard. “Banneker, Benjamin (1731-1806)”.Scientists. BlackPast.org. Archived from the originalon 2014-03-09. Retrieved 2015-05-14. Banneker sent a manuscript copy of his work to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson along with a plea against the continuance of black slavery and received a courteous, if evasive, reply. External link in |work= (help)
  51. Jump up^ Jefferson, Thomas (August 30, 1791). “Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Mr. Benjamin Banneker”. Image of letter in American Memory. Library of Congress. Retrieved 2010-08-20. External link in |publisher=, |work= (help)
  52. Jump up^ Jefferson, Thomas (August 30, 1791). “Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Mr. Benjamin Banneker”. Transcript of letter (July 22, 2010) in Thomas Jefferson Exhibition (July 27, 2010). Library of Congress. Retrieved 2010-08-20.External link in |publisher=, |work= (help)
  53. Jump up^ (1) “Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet” in official website of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2009-11-23.
    (2) Hart, David M. “Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794)”. The Forum at The Online Library of Liberty. Liberty Fund, Inc. Retrieved2011-12-28. External link in |work= (help)
  54. Jump up^ Bedini, 1999, pp. 163, 168
  55. Jump up^ 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) inofficial website of University of Virginia Library. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
  56. Jump up^ (1) Jefferson, Thomas (August 30, 1791). “Letter from Thomas Jefferson to M. de Condorcet”. p. 1. Image of letter in “American Treasures of the Library of Congress”.Library of Congress. Retrieved 2010-08-20. External link in |publisher= (help)
    (2) Jefferson, Thomas (August 30, 1791). “Letter from Thomas Jefferson to M. de Condorcet”. p. 2. Image of letter in “American Treasures of the Library of Congress”.Library of Congress. Retrieved 2010-08-20. External link in |publisher= (help)
  57. Jump up^ Gregoire, H. (1808). Bannaker. De la littérature des nègres, ou Recherches sur leurs facultés intellectuelles, leurs qualités morales et leur littérature, suivies de Notices sur la vie et les ouvrages des Nègres qui se sont distingués dans les Sciences, les Lettres et les Arts (Paris, France: Chez Maradan, Libraire). pp. 211–212.
    English translation: Gregoire, H., translated by D.B. Warden(1810). Banneker. An enquiry concerning the intellectual and moral faculties, and literature of negroes; followed with an account of the life and works of fifteen negroes & mulattoes, distinguished in science, literature and the arts(Brooklyn, New York: Thomas Kirk). pp. 187–180.
  58. Jump up^ Jefferson, Thomas (October 8, 1809). Washington, H.A. (1853), ed. Correspondence: To Mr Barlow. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson; being his Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private. Published by the order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the original manuscripts, deposited in the Department of State.5 (Washington, D.C.: Taylor & Maury). pp. 475–476.
  59. ^ Jump up to:a b “Obituary of Benjamin Banneker”. Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daily Advertiser. 1806-10-28. From Maryland Historical Society Library Department (2014-02-06). “The Dreams of Benjamin Banneker”. Underbelly. Maryland Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2014-12-16. Retrieved 2015-03-09. External link in |work= (help)
  60. Jump up^ (1) Tyson, p. 10 and p. 12
    (2) Bedini,1999, pp. 253–254
  61. Jump up^ (1) “Benjamin Banneker” marker in website ofhmdb.org: The Historical Marker Database. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
    (2) “Benjamin Banneker”. Find a Grave. Retrieved2010-08-10.
    (3) Coordinates of Benjamim Banneker obelisk: 39°16′30″N 76°46′44″W
  62. ^ Jump up to:a b c Respers, Lisa (1996-08-01). “18th-century Banneker items to be auctioned: Museum organizers hope to buy rare artifacts”. The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the originalon 2012-09-20. Retrieved 2012-09-20.
  63. Jump up^ Tyson p. 18
  64. Jump up^ Maryland Historical Society Library Department (2014-02-06). “The Dreams of Benjamin Banneker”. Underbelly.Maryland Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2014-12-16. Retrieved 2015-03-09. The astronomical journal is the only remaining artifact written in Banneker’s hand, as his cabin and most of his belongings burned down in a fire as his body was being laid in the ground in 1806. On his instruction, the astronomical journal and some other loose manuscripts were removed upon his death and left to George Ellicott (1760-1832). The journal stayed in the hands of the Ellicott family until 1844 when it was deposited here at MdHS, where it was used by John H.B. Latrobe the following year. Quaker philanthropist and MdHS memberMoses Sheppard (1771-1857) had the book rebound in Russian leather in 1852, and at this date most likely combined the astronomical journal with some of Banneker’s loose manuscripts as well as a day book. At some unknown date the astronomical journal left MdHS and returned to the hands of the Ellicott family. It stayed there, away from the public’s eye until 1987 when Ellicott family descendant Dorothea West Fitzhugh donated it in honor of her late husband Robert Tyson Fitzhugh. In 1999 MdHS sent the journal to the Center for Conservation in Philadelphia where it was rebound, deacidified, and given full conservation treatment. External link in |work= (help)
  65. Jump up^ Tyson, pp. 17-18
  66. Jump up^ (1) McNatt, Glenn (1996-08-25). “Banneker items close to being auctioned”. The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 2015-04-01. Retrieved 2015-04-01. Elizabeth Wilde, the Ellicott family member who inherited the Banneker-related items, plans to sell more than 20 Banneker artifacts and documents next month through C. G. Sloan auction house in Bethesda. Wilde, who lives in Indianapolis, has rebuffed appeals from Banneker historians, relatives and admirers to donate the artifacts to the new Banneker museum or give the sponsoring group more time to raise money so it can buy the items itself.
    (2) Respers, Lisa (1996-08-29). “$50,000 donated to Banneker museum ‘Friends’ hope to keep rare artifacts in Md”. The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 2015-04-01. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
    (3) “For sale: Benjamin Banneker’s legacy: Artifacts on the block: Business leaders should help bring rare items home”. The Baltimore Sun. 1996-09-04. Archived from the original on 2014-12-02. Retrieved 2015-03-31.
  67. Jump up^ (1) Respers, Lisa (1996-09-09). “Coveted Banneker items going, going . . . gone: Dismayed local group outbid by Va. banker”. The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the originalon 2012-09-20. Retrieved 2012-09-20. Emanuel Friedman, an investment banker and chairman of Friedman, Billings and Ramsey in Rosslyn, Va., made winning bids of $32,500 for the table, $7,500 for letters, a scrapbook and personal papers from the Ellicott estate, $6,000 for the candlesticks, and $3,750 for the ledger. …. Friedman said he planned to keep some for a personal collection and donate the rest to a new African-American Civil War Foundation museum being planned in Washington, which he believed would be willing to share the artifacts with the Banneker museum.
    (2) Respers, Lisa (1996-09-23). “Banneker artifacts sought on loan: Oella museum backers want to borrow items bought by D.C. banker”. The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 2012-09-20. Retrieved 2012-09-20.
  68. Jump up^ (1) Levine, Susan (1997-01-04). “A Banneker plan: Museums named for scientist to be lent artifacts”. The Washington Post (The Washington Post Company, Washington, D.C.). p. B.1. Retrieved 2010-05-17. External link in |work= (help)
    (2) Respers, Lisa (1997-01-04). “Museum to display Banneker artifacts: Owner will allow objects to be shown for 20 years”. The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 2015-04-01. Retrieved 2015-04-01. Next week, the Virginia-based investment banker who paid $85,000 for a table, candlesticks, documents and other items is expected to sign an agreement allowing the museum to display the artifacts for 20 years. …. Items auctioned in Bethesda in September came from a descendant of the Ellicotts, a white family that forged a strong friendship with the scientist, who died in 1806. Among them: a maple and pine drop-leaf table believed to have been lent to Banneker by the Ellicott family, two candlesticks and a candle mold, a ledger from the Ellicott & Co. general store noting purchases by Banneker, and several documents and letters pertaining to Banneker and the Ellicotts. ….. Friedman, a history buff, donated the artifacts to a Civil War monument and visitors center being built by his friend Frank Smith Jr., a Washington councilman. He said the entire collection, which includes other items of Banneker’s period that did not relate to him, will be part of a Black History exhibit at The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. They will then be turned over to the Banneker-Douglas Museum in Annapolis, until construction of the Oella museum is completed.
    (3) “Banneker dream a reality Oella: Artifacts of the ‘first black man of science’ on display in new museum and park”. The Baltimore Sun. 1998-07-02. Archived from the original on 2015-04-01. Retrieved 2015-04-01. The artifacts donated by Mr. Friedman, including a William and Mary drop-leaf table, candlesticks and documents, will be brought to the museum next year.
  69. Jump up^ (1) Whittle, Syd. “Desk used by Benjamin Banneker (photographed 2012-05-15 in Benjamin Banneker Museum, Oella, Maryland)”. “Benjamin Banneker” marker. HMdb: The Historical Marker Database. Retrieved 2015-09-07.
    (2) Scible, Kelly (2014-11-19). “Embracing history at the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum”.Westminster, Maryland: Carroll County Times. Archived from the original on 2015-08-18. Retrieved 2015-08-18.The museum has desk and candle molds used by Benjamin.
  70. Jump up^ (1) Maryland Historical Society Library Department(2014-02-06). “The Dreams of Benjamin Banneker”.Underbelly. Maryland Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2014-12-16. Retrieved 2015-03-09. Over the 200 years since the death of Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), his story has become a muddled combination of fact, inference, misinformation, hyperbole, and legend. Like many other figures throughout history, the small amount of surviving source material has nurtured the development of a degree of mythology surrounding his story. External link in|work= (help)
    (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) Johnson, Richard. “Banneker, Benjamin (1731-1806)”.Scientists. BlackPast.org. Archived from the originalon 2014-03-09. Retrieved 2015-05-14. (Banneker’s) life and work have become enshrouded in legend and anecdote.External link in |work= (help)
  71. ^ Jump up to:a b c Shipler, David K. (1998). The Myths of America. A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America (New York: Vintage Books). pp. 196–197. ISBN 0679734546.OCLC 39849003. The Banneker story, impressive as it was, got embellished in 1987, when the public school system in Portland, Oregon, published African-American Baseline Essays, a thick stack of loose-leaf background papers for teachers, commissioned to encourage black history instruction. They have been used in Detroit, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Newark, and scattered schools elsewhere, although they have been attacked for gross inaccuracy in an entire literature of detailed criticism by respected historians. …. External link in |work= (help) At Google Books.
  72. Jump up^ (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 Mahoney, John F (July 2010). “Benjamin Banneker’s Inscribed Equilateral Triangle – References”. Loci (Mathematical Association of America) 2. Archived from the original on 2014-02-06. Retrieved 2014-02-06. External link in |journal= (help)
    (6) Bigbytes. “Benjamin Banneker Stories”. dcsymbols dot com. Archived from the original on 2013-01-27. Retrieved 2013-01-27. External link in |publisher= (help)
    (7) Levine, Michael. “Planning Our Capital City: L’Enfant designed more than D.C.: He designed a 200-year-old controversy”. History DC Area. DCpages.com. Archived from the original on 2013-01-25. Retrieved2013-01-25. External link in |work= (help)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Benjamin Banneker.
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Wikisource has the text of a 1900 Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biographyarticle about Benjamin Banneker.
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