[Eoscstudents] Black History Awareness

[Levenia Carey]

Good Afternoon:

Today's spotlight is on Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806).  Mr. Banneker was 
a mathematician, astronomer, author of almanacs, surveyor, humanitarian 
and inventor.  Banneker was born free in Baltimore County, Maryland and 
spent his life on his parents' farm. His grandmother, an English 
indentured servant named Molly Welsh, taught him to read and write.  At 
age 12, Banneker began attending school, where he displayed a strong 
talent for mathematics, often making up math puzzles for the fun of 
solving them.  While in his late teens, he saw a pocket watch for the 
first time and decided to build a clock himself.  After spending two 
years carving all the gears from wood, he constructed and introduced the 
first striking clock to America and it was constructed with non imported 
parts.  It kept perfect time for over 40 years.

Around 1771, Banneker became friendly with the Ellicotts, five Quaker 
brothers who had purchased land adjoining his property.  From them, 
Banneker borrowed various science books, from which he taught himself 
astronomy.  When an Ellicott cousin, Major Andrew Ellicott, was 
appointed to Pierre L' Enfant's team to conduct a survey of what would 
later become Washington, D.C., Banneker was hired to assist him - making 
him the first African-American presidential appointee in the United 
States.  He maintained the field astronomical clock and compile 
astronomical and other necessary mathematical data.  When plans for the 
project disappeared, Banneker reproduced them entirely from memory.

In 1791, and again n 1792, Banneker compiled an ephemeris, an 
astronomical report providing mathematically computed positions for the 
various stars and planet for every day throughout the year.  When Thomas 
Jefferson stated that "Blacks are inferior to Whites," Benjamin Banneker 
sent him a copy of the 1792 ephemeris along with a 12 page letter 
promoting the abolition of slavery and changing Jefferson mind on the 
subject.  Jefferson was so impressed with Banneker's work that he 
forwarded it to the Academie des Sciences in Paris.  The ephemeris, 
along with a good deal of antislavery material, became a part of 
Benjamin Banneker's Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia 
Almanack and Ephemeris, for the Year of Our Lord, 1792.  The almanac 
sold well, and Banneker continued publishing almanacs and/or ephemerics 
until 1804.  His works was often cited by abolitionists as proof that 
blacks were the equal of whites in intelligence and sensitivity.

Benjamin Banneker proved that "The color of the skin is in no way 
connected with strength of the mind or intellectual powers."

Until tomorrow,
Levenia, Marilynn, Brenton, NAACP/Psycho Clubs
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