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Essay on Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker was one of the most famous black people in early United States History. He was mathematician, astronomer, farmer, and the person who published pamphlets against slavery and war and surveyor who is chiefly known for his almanacs published in the 1790s. Banneker was born a freeman in Maryland at a time when most blacks were slaves. Son of a freed slave, Benjamin Banneker was born on 9 November 1731 near the Patapsco River in Baltimore County. His grandmother taught him to read the Bible by the time he was four. He received no formal education apart from attending a nearby Quaker school for several seasons, where he showed a great interest and ability in mathematics. “Banneker lived his entire life on the Maryland tobacco farm he inherited from his father. Throughout most of his life he worked on his parents' tobacco farm, managing it after the death of his father in 1759, and taught himself mathematics and astronomy. He retired from farming in 1790 to devote all his time to his studies and remained at the farm until his death on 9 October 1806”. (Clark, 1979)
Banneker became known in 1753, at the age of 21 when, having studied only a pocket watch, he constructed a striking clock of hand-carved wooden parts. This feat of untutored craftsmanship - he had never seen such a clock - brought him local fame. This was the first clock of its kind in America and operated for more than 40 years. He was better known, however, for his almanacs, which were published from 1792 to 1797. At about age fifty-seven, in the year 1789 Banneker borrowed astronomical instruments and texts from a Quaker neighbor, George Ellicott. Working alone, he soon grasped the principles of calculus and spherical trigonometry that were necessary to construct an astronomical almanac - a virtually unheard-of feat of self-education....
