FREE ESSAY ON BENJAMIN BANNEKER

BENJAMIN BANNEKER

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) 
Without Benjamin Banneker, our nation's capital would not exist as we know it. 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. 
Banneker's English grandmother immigrated to the Baltimore area and married one of her
slaves, named Bannaky. Later, their daughter did likewise, and gave birth to Benjamin in
1731. Since by law, free/slave status depended on the mother, Banneker, like his mother,
was---technically---free. 
Banneker attended an elementary school run by Quakers (one of the few color-blind
communities of that time); in fact, he later adopted many Quaker habits and ideas. As a
young man, he was given a pocket-watch by a business associate: this inspired Banneker to
create his own clock, made entirely of wood (1753). Famous as the first clock built in
the New World, it kept perfect time for forty years. 
During the Revolutionary War, wheat grown on a farm designed by Banneker helped save the
fledgling U.S. troops from starving. After the War, Banneker took up astronomy: in 1789,
he successfully predicted an eclipse. From 1792 to 1802, Banneker published an annual
Farmer's Almanac, for which he did all the calculations himself. 
The Almanac won Banneker fame as far away as England and France. He used his reputation
to promote social change: namely, to eliminate racism and war. He sent a copy of his
first Almanac to Thomas Jefferson, with a letter protesting that the man who declared
that all men are created equal owned slaves. Jefferson responded with enthusiastic words,
but no political reform. Similarly, Banneker's attempts to inspire a veneration for human
life and an horror for war fell mainly on deaf ears. 
But Banneker's reputation was never in doubt. He spent his last years as an
internationally known polymath: farmer, engineer, surveyor, city planner, astronomer,
mathematician, inventor, author, and social critic. He died on October 25, 1806. Today,
Banneker does not have the reputation he should, although the entire world could still
learn from his words: Ah, why will men forget that they are brethren?