Banneker, Benjamin

Banneker, Benjamin

(born Nov. 9, 1731, Ellicott's Mills, Md.—died Oct. 25, 1806, Baltimore, Md., U.S.) American astronomer, compiler of almanacs, and inventor. A free black who owned a farm near Baltimore, Banneker was largely self-educated in astronomy and mathematics. In 1761 he attracted attention by building a wooden clock that kept precise time. He began astronomical calculations about 1773, accurately predicted a solar eclipse in 1789, and published annually from 1791 to 1802 the Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac and Ephemeris. (He sent an early copy of the almanac to Thomas Jefferson to counter a contention that blacks were intellectually inferior.) In 1790 he was appointed to the commission that surveyed the site for Washington, D.C. He also wrote essays denouncing slavery and war.

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Banneker, Benjamin (1731–1806) astronomer, mathematician; born near Baltimore, Md. Grandson of an Englishwoman and a freed black slave, but son of a slave father and freed black mother, he was allowed to attend a local elementary school where he showed a talent for math and science. As a youth, he made a clock entirely out of wood that kept time for some 50 years. Although his main occupation was farming, he devoted his spare time to applied sciences. Between 1792–1802, he published an almanac that used his astronomical and tide calculations and his weather predictions along with proverbs, poems, and essays contributed by himself and others; this almanac was often cited by opponents of slavery as evidence of African-Americans' abilities. Thomas Jefferson, who knew of Banneker's work, had him hired in 1791 to assist the surveyors laying out the new capital and the District of Columbia. He in turn did not shrink from urging Jefferson to abolish slavery and to adopt more progressive policies for black Americans, of whom he was probably the best known in his day and for some decades.