By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Benjamin Banneker, born in 1731 in Ellicotts Mills, Maryland, was the grandson of an English woman who married her slave and subsequently set free, their daughter did the same and Banneker was birthed out of that union.
Banneker was taught to read and write by his grandmother and attended one of America’s first integrated schools.
By the age of 22, Banneker was known for his propensity for mathematics, engineering and astronomy although he had no previous training. He was so mechanically inclined with just a knife and the parts of an old pocket watch, Banneker constructed a America’s first striking clock made primarily of wood that kept accurate time for 40 years that people from all over came to view.
In 1773, Banneker began doing astronomical calculations for almanacs and excelled. He was so accurate in his calculations that in 1789 he predicted a solar eclipse and was appointed by the president as the first African American to the President’s Capital Commission.
Banneker was so ahead of time that, as a self-taught surveyor in 1789, he was called upon to assist George Ellicott and Pierre L’Enfant in designing and planning what would become our nation’s capital – Washington, D.C.
Even the origins of the nickname Big Ben is the subject of debate as some historians believe Banneker, the clock maker, designed the grand clock that overlooks London keeping track of history through time.
As an astronomer, inventor and mathematician Banneker was needed. So needed that after L’Enfant stormed out and quit on then President George Washington, who appointed him, Thomas Jefferson summoned Banneker to finish the job.
In the book The Life of Benjamin Banneker, Silvio A. Bedini wrote that “without Benjamin Banneker, our nation’s capital would not exist as we know it.”
Silvio went on to describe Banneker’s contribution to the building of the nation’s capital as follows:
“After a year of work, the Frenchman hired by George Washington to design the capital, L’Enfant, stormed off the job, taking all the plans. Banneker, placed on the planning committee at Thomas Jefferson’s request, saved the project by reproducing from memory, in two days, a complete layout of the streets, parks, and major buildings. Thus Washington, D.C. itself can be considered a monument to the genius of this great man.”
From 1792 till his death Banneker published a farmers’ almanac annually. He sent his first copy to Jefferson, which Jefferson greatly admired and sent it to Paris to be inducted into the Academy of Science. Such things for the time were unheard of for the African slave and freeman. Banneker’s notoriety spread throughout the world and he used his fame to champion the intellectual quality the African American.
Beyond his genius Banneker was socially conscious as well as he advocated for the end of slavery even to the point of corresponding with Jefferson after he became president about the abolishing the institution of slavery. Banneker did all he could to use his reputation to promote social change to eliminate war and slavery.
Banneker lived the rest of days as an internationally known polymath, engineer, surveyor, astronomer, city planner, inventor, author, social activist, mathematician and farmer.
Benjamin Banneker has solidified his place in that echelon of great African peoples who have impacted all of humanity. Before his death on October 25, 1806 Banneker continued to produce as he wrote a dissertation on bees, a study of locus plague cycles and countless letters on segregation in America, he died at the age 75 in Boston. In 1980 the Post Office honored him with Black Heritage stamp in his honor.
