Born in Baltimore County, Maryland, to a free African-American mother and a father who had formerly been enslaved, Banneker had little or no formal education and was largely self-taught. He became known for assisting Major Andrew Ellicott in a survey that established the original borders of the District of Columbia, the federal capital district of the United States.
Banneker's knowledge of astronomy helped him author a commercially successful series of almanacs. He corresponded with Thomas Jefferson on the topics of slavery and racial equality. Abolitionists and advocates of racial equality promoted and praised Banneker's works. Although a fire on the day of Banneker's funeral destroyed many of his papers and belongings, one of his journals and several of his remaining artifacts survived.
Banneker became a folk-hero after his death, leading to many accounts of his life being exaggerated or embellished.[2] The names of parks, schools and streets commemorate him and his works, as do other tributes.
Biography
Early life
Banneker was born on November 9, 1731, in Baltimore County, Maryland, to Mary Banneky, a free black woman, and Robert, a freed slave from Guinea who died in 1759.[3][4] There are two conflicting accounts of Banneker's family history.
Banneker himself and his earliest biographers described him as having only African ancestry.[5][6][7] None of Banneker's surviving papers describe a white ancestor or identify the name of his grandmother.[6]
However, later biographers have contended that Banneker's mother was the child of Molly Welsh, a former white indentured servant, and an African slave named Banneka.[4][6][8] The first published description of Molly Welsh was based on interviews with her descendants that took place in 1836, long after the deaths of both Molly and Benjamin.[6][9] According to that story, Molly purchased Banneka to help establish a farm located near the future site of Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, west of Baltimore.[9]
A biographer suggested in 2002 that Banneka may have been a member of the Dogon people, who several anthropologists have claimed had an early knowledge of astronomy (see Dogon astronomical beliefs).[10] Molly supposedly freed and married Banneka, who may have shared his knowledge of astronomy with her.[11] The biographer suggested that Benjamin acquired this knowledge from Molly, as Benjamin was born after Banneka's death.[10]
A genealogist who in 2016 reported an analysis of records related to Banneker's family tree was unable to identify any documents that showed that Banneker had a white grandmother, but could not rule out that possibility. The report noted that the name "Bannaker" may have had the same origin as that of Banaka, a small village in the present-day Klay District of Bomi County in northwestern Liberia that had once participated in the African slave trade.[4][12] A 2021 update to this genealogy stated that Benjamin Banneker's father, Robert, was by May 18, 1731, married to Mary Lett (then called Mary Beneca), the daughter of a white woman by an enslaved man. The update noted that Banaka is the home of the Vai people, who have lived there since about 1500 when they left the Mali Empire.[13]
View of the Patapsco Valley from Ellicott City (June 2012)
In 1737, Banneker was named at the age of 6 on the deed of his family's 100-acre (0.40 km2) farm in the Patapsco Valley in rural Baltimore County.[14][15][16] A letter writer stated in 1791 that Banneker's parents had sent him to an obscure school where he learned reading, writing and arithmetic as far as double position.[clarification needed][17] However, the remainder of Banneker's early life is not well documented.
Unverified accounts that first appeared in books published more than 140 years after Banneker's death relate that, as a young teenager, Banneker met and befriended Peter Heinrich, a Quaker who later established a school near the Banneker family farm.[18][19] (Quakers were leaders in the anti-slavery movement and advocates of racial equality (see Quakers in the abolition movement and Testimony of equality)).[20] These accounts state that Heinrich shared his personal library and provided Banneker with his only classroom instruction.[19][21] Banneker's formal education (if any) presumably ended when he was old enough to help on his family's farm.[22]
Notable works
Around 1753, at about the age of 21, Banneker reportedly completed a wooden clock that struck on the hour. He appears to have modelled his clock from a borrowed pocket watch by carving each piece to scale. The clock continued to work until his death.[22][23]
After his father died in 1759, Banneker lived with his mother and sisters.[3][9] In 1768, he signed a Baltimore County petition to move the county seat from Joppa to Baltimore.[24] An entry for his property in a 1773 Baltimore County tax list identified Banneker as the only adult member of his household.[25]
In 1788, George Ellicott, a son of Andrew Ellicott, loaned Banneker books and equipment to begin a more formal study of astronomy.[30][31][32] During the following year, Banneker sent George his work calculating a solar eclipse.[30][31][29]
In 1790, Banneker prepared an ephemeris for 1791, which he hoped would be placed within a published almanac.[33] However, he was unable to find a printer that was willing to publish and distribute the work.[30][34]
Survey of the original boundaries of the District of Columbia
1835 map of the District of Columbia showing Washington City in its center, Georgetown to the west of the city, and the town of Alexandria in the District's south corner.1799 portrait of Andrew Ellicott
In early 1791, U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson asked surveyor Major Andrew Ellicott (a son of Joseph Ellicott and a cousin of George Ellicott) to survey an area that would contain a new federal district. In February 1791, Ellicott left a surveying team that he had been leading in western New York so that he could begin the district's survey. Ellicott then hired Banneker as a replacement to assist in the initial survey of the federal district's boundaries, advancing him $60 for travel expenses to and at Georgetown.[35][36]
Biographers have stated that Banneker's duties on the survey consisted primarily of making astronomical observations and calculations to establish base points, including one at Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia, where the survey started and where the south corner stone was to be located.[35][38] They have also stated that Banneker maintained a clock that he used to relate points on the ground to the positions of stars at specific times.[30][14]
However, some have noted that Banneker's actual role in the survey is uncertain, as his involvement in the effort "rests on extremely meager documentation".[39][40] An April 21, 1791, news report of the April 15 dedication ceremony for the first boundary stone (the south corner stone) stated that it was Andrew Ellicott who "ascertained the precise point from which the first line of the district was to proceed".[41] The news report did not mention Banneker's name.[42]
Banneker left the boundary survey in April 1791 within three months of its initiation because the time that he was devoting to the project was conflicting with the time that he had expected to use to calculate an ephemeris for the year of 1792.[43][44] Further, the arrival of spring required him to direct more attention to his farm than was needed during the winter.[44] In addition, Andrew Ellicott's younger brothers, Benjamin and Joseph Ellicott, who usually assisted Andrew, had completed the New York survey and were able to join the survey of the federal district at around that time.[44]
Banneker therefore returned to his home near Ellicott's Mills.[30][44] The Ellicotts and other members of the surveying team then laid the remaining Virginia marker stones later in 1791. The team laid the Maryland stones and completed the boundary survey in 1792.[35][36][45]
Pemberton then asked William Waring, a Philadelphia mathematician and ephemeris calculator,[47] and David Rittenhouse, a prominent American astronomer, almanac author,[48] surveyor and scientific instrument maker who was at the time serving as the president of the American Philosophical Society,[49] to confirm the accuracy of Banneker's work.[34][14] Waring endorsed Banneker's work, stating, "I have examined Benjamin Banneker's Almanac for 1792, and am of the Opinion that it well deserves the Acceptance and Encouragement of the Public."[14]
Rittenhouse responded to Pemberton by stating that Banneker's ephemeris "was a very extraordinary performance, considering the Colour of the Author" and that he "had no doubt that the Calculations are sufficiently accurate for the purposes of a common Almanac. .... Every instance of Genius amongst the Negroes is worthy of attention, because their suppressors seem to lay great stress on their supposed inferior mental abilities."[14] A biographer wrote that Banneker replied to Rittenhouse's endorsement by stating: "I am annoyed to find that the subject of my race is so much stressed. The work is either correct or it is not. In this case, I believe it to be perfect."[50]
Pemberton then made arrangements for Joseph Crukshank (a Philadelphia Quaker who was a founder of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery and who had since 1770 been publishing almanacs, including at least one that Waring had calculated) to print Banneker's almanac.[30][51] Having thus secured the support of Pemberton, Rittenhouse and Waring, Banneker delivered a manuscript containing his ephemeris to William Goddard, a Baltimore printer who had published The Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris for every year since 1782.[52] Goddard then agreed to print and distribute Banneker's work within an almanac and ephemeris for the year of 1792.[14]
Banneker's Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris, for the Year of our Lord, 1792 was the first in a six-year series of almanacs and ephemerides that printers agreed to publish and sell.[30][34] At least 28 editions of the almanacs, some of which appeared during the same year, were printed in seven cities in five states: Baltimore; Philadelphia; Wilmington, Delaware; Alexandria, Virginia; Petersburg, Virginia; Richmond, Virginia; and Trenton, New Jersey.[30][53][54]
Title page of the Baltimore edition of Banneker's 1792 almanac and ephemeris.
The title pages of the Baltimore editions of Banneker's 1792, 1793 and 1794 almanacs and ephemerides stated that the publications contained:
the Motions of the Sun and Moon, the True Places and Aspects of the Planets, the Rising and Setting of the Sun, Place and Age of the Moon, &c. – The Lunations, Conjunctions, Eclipses, Judgment of the Weather, Festivals, and other remarkable Days; Days for holding the Supreme and Circuit Courts of the United States, as also the useful Courts in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Also – several useful Tables, and valuable Receipts. – Various Selections from the Commonplace–Book of the Kentucky Philosopher, an American Sage; with interesting and entertaining Essays, in Prose and Verse –the whole comprising a greater, more pleasing, and useful Variety than any Work of the Kind and Price in North America.[55][56]
Woodcut portrait of Benjamin Bannaker (Banneker) in title page of a Baltimore edition of his 1795 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac.[57]
In addition to the information that its title page described, the 1792 almanac contained a tide table listing the methods for calculating the time of high water at four locations along the Chesapeake Bay (Cape Charles and Point Lookout, Virginia; Annapolis and Baltimore, Maryland).[58] Later almanacs contained tables for making such calculations for those locations as well as for Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Halifax, Quebec, Hatteras, Nantucket and other places.[59] Monthly tables in each edition listed astronomical data and weather predictions for each of the months' dates.[60]
A Philadelphia edition of Banneker's 1795 almanac contained a lengthy account of a yellow fever epidemic that had struck that city in 1793. Written by a committee whose president was the city's mayor, Matthew Clarkson, the account related the presumed origins and causes of the epidemic, as well as the extent and duration of the event.[61]
The title pages of two Baltimore editions of Banneker's 1795 almanac had woodcut portraits of him as he may have appeared.[57][62] However, a biographer later concluded that the portraits were more likely portrayals of an idealized African-American youth.[63]
A Baltimore edition of Banneker's 1796 almanac contained a table enumerating the population of each U.S. state and the Southwest Territory as recorded in the 1790 United States census. The table listed the number of free persons and slaves in each state and the territory according to race and gender, as well as to whether they were above or below the age of 16 years. The table also listed the number of members of the U.S. House of Representatives that each state had during the almanac's year.[64]
The almanacs' editors prefaced the publications with adulatory references to Banneker and his race.[34][65] Editions of Banneker's 1792 and 1793 almanacs contained full or abridged copies of a lengthy commendatory letter that James McHenry,[66] the Secretary of the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention and self-described friend of Banneker, had written to Goddard and his partner, James Angell, in August 1791 to support the almanac's publication.[67]
As first published in Banneker's 1792 almanac and later given an increased circulation when re-published in Philadelphia within The American Museum, or Universal Magazine, McHenry's full letter began:
Benjamin Banneker, a free Negro, has calculated an Almanack, for the ensuing year, 1792, which being desirous to dispose of, to the best advantage, he has requested me to aid his application to you for that purpose. Having fully satisfied myself, in respect to his title to this type of authorship, if you can agree to him for the price of his work, I may venture to assure you it will do you credit, as Editors, while it will afford you the opportunity to encourage talents that have thus far surmounted the most discouraging circumstances and prejudices."[68]
In their preface to Banneker's 1792 almanac, the editors of the work wrote that they:
feel themselves gratified in the Opportunity of presenting to the Public, through the Medium of their Press, what must be considered as an extraordinary Effort of Genius — a complete and accurate EPHEMERIS for the Year 1792, calculated by a sable Descendant of Africa, .... — They flatter themselves that a philanthropic Public, in this enlightened Era, will be induced to give their Patronage and Support to this Work, not only on Account of its intrinsic Merit, (it having met the Approbation of several of the most distinguished Astronomers in America, particularly the celebrated Mr. Rittenhouse) but from similar Motives to those which induced the Editors to give this Calculation the Preference, the ardent desire of drawing modest Merit from Obscurity, and controverting the long-established illiberal Prejudice against the Blacks.[69]
After Goddard and Angell had published their 1792 Baltimore edition of the almanac, Angell wrote in the 1793 edition (which he alone edited) that abolitionists William Pitt, Charles James Fox and William Wilberforce had introduced the 1792 edition into the British House of Commons to aid their effort to end the British slave trade in Africa.[70][71] However, the British Parliament's report of the debate that accompanied this effort did not mention either Banneker or his almanac.[72]
The title page of a Petersburg edition of Banneker's 1794 "Virginia Almanack" stated that the work was "Calculated by that ingenious self taught astronomer Benjamin Banneker, a black man",[73] repeating a term that Angell had used in the 1793 Baltimore almanac.[70][71] The introduction to a 1795 Philadelphia edition contained a poem titled: "Addressed to Benjamin Banneker".[74][75] The verse began and ended:
Fain would the muse exalt her tuneful lays, And chant in strains sublime Banneker's praise; Fain would the soar on Fame's majestic wing, Thy genius, great Banneker, to sing; Thy talents and thy greatness would I shew, Not in applausive strains to thee undue; .............. Long may thou live an evidence to shew, That Afric's sable race have talents too. And may thy genius bright its strength retain; Tho' nature to decline may still remain; And may favour us to thy latest years With thy Ephemeris call'd Banneker's. A work which ages yet unborn shall name And be the monument of lasting fame; A work which after ages shall adore, When Banneker, alas! shall be no more![74]
Nor you ye proud, impute to these the blame If Afric's sons to genius are unknown, For Banneker has prov'd they may acquire a name, As bright, as lasting, as your own.[78][80]
Supported by Andrew, George and Elias Ellicott and heavily promoted by the Maryland and Pennsylvania abolition societies, the early editions of the almanacs achieved commercial success.[81] Printers then distributed at least nine editions of Banneker's 1795 almanac.[82] A Wilmington, Delaware, printer issued five editions for distribution by different vendors. Printers in Baltimore issued three versions of the almanac, while three Philadelphia printers also sold editions. A Trenton, New Jersey, printer additionally sold a version of the work.[83][84]
In 1796, Banneker gave a manuscript of one of his almanacs to Suzanna Mason, a member of the Ellicott family who was visiting his home.[85] In 1836, Mason's daughter wrote a published memoir of her mother's life, letters and manuscripts.[86] The memoir contained a copy of a poem that Mason had sent to Banneker shortly after her 1796 visit.[87] A portion of the verse stated:
But thou, a man exhalted high, Conspicuous in the world's keen eye, On record now thy name's enrolled, And future ages will be told, There lived a man called Banneker, An African astronomer.[88]
Banneker's journals
Brood X periodical cicadaBrood X periodical cicada with Massospora cicadina infection
Banneker kept a series of journals that contained his notebooks for astronomical observations, his diary and accounts of his dreams.[30][89] The journals, only one of which escaped a fire on the day of his funeral, additionally contained a number of mathematical calculations and puzzles.[30][89][90]
The surviving journal described in April 1800 Banneker's recollections of the 1749, 1766 and 1783 emergences of Brood X of the seventeen-year periodical cicada (Magicicada septendecim and related species) and stated, "... they may be expected again in they year 1800 which is Seventeen Since their third appearance to me."[91] Describing an effect that the pathogenic fungus, Massospora cicadina, has on its host,[92] the journal further stated that the insects:
.... begin to Sing or make a noise from first they come out of the Earth till they die. The hindermost part rots off, and it does not appear to be any pain to them, for they still continue on Singing till they die.[93]
The journal also recorded Banneker's observations on the hives and behavior of honey bees.[94]
Political views
Banneker's 1792 almanac contained an extract from an anonymous essay entitled "On Negro Slavery, and the Slave Trade" that the Columbian Magazine had published in 1790.[95] After quoting a statement that David Rittenhouse had made (that Negroes "have been doomed to endless slavery by us — merely because their bodies have been disposed to reflect or absorb the rays of light in a way different from ours"), the extract concluded:
The time, it is hoped is not very remote, when those ill-fated people, dwelling in this land of freedom, shall commence a participation with the white inhabitants, in the blessings of liberty; and experience the kindly protection of government, for the essential rights of human nature.[96]
A Philadelphia edition of Banneker's 1793 almanac that Joseph Crukshank published contained copies of pleas for peace that the English anti-slavery poet William Cowper and others had authored,[97] as well as anti-slavery speeches and writings from England and America. The latter included extracts from speeches that William Pitt, Matthew Montagu and Charles James Fox had given to the British House of Commons in 1792 during the debate on a motion for the abolition of the British slave trade,[98] an extract from a 1789 poem by an English Quaker, Thomas Wilkinson,[99] and an extract from a query in Thomas Jefferson's 1787 Notes on the State of Virginia.[100][28]
Crukshank's edition of Banneker's 1793 almanac also contained a copy of "A Plan of a Peace-Office, for the United States".[101] Although the almanac did not identify the Plan's author, writers later attributed the work to Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the 1776 Declaration of Independence.[102]
The Plan proposed the appointment of a "Secretary of Peace", described the Secretary's powers and advocated federal support and promotion of the Christian religion. The Plan stated:
I. Let a Secretary of Peace be appointed to preside in this office; ....; let him be a genuine republican and a sincere Christian, ....
II. Let a power be given to the Secretary to establish and maintain free schools in every city, village and township in the United States; .... Let the youth of our country be instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in the doctrines of a religion of some kind; the Christian religion should be preferred to all others; for it belongs to this religion exclusively to teach us not only to cultivate peace with all men, but to forgive—nay more, to love our very enemies. ....
III. Let every family be furnished at public expense, by the Secretary of this office, with an American edition of the Bible. ....
IV. Let the following sentence be inscribed in letters of gold over the door of every home in the United States: THE SON OF MAN CAME INTO THE WORLD, NOT TO DESTROY MEN'S LIVES, BUT TO SAVE THEM.
V. To inspire a veneration for human life, and a horror at the shedding of human blood, let all those laws be repealed which authorise juries, judges, sheriffs, or hangmen to assume the resentments of individuals, and to commit murder in cold blood in any case whatever. ....
VI. To subdue that passion for war, .... militia laws should everywhere be repealed, and military dresses and military titles should be laid aside. ....[103]
On August 19, 1791, after departing the federal capital area, Banneker wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson, who in 1776 had drafted the United States Declaration of Independence and in 1791 was serving as United States Secretary of State.[104][105] Quoting language in the Declaration, the letter expressed a plea for justice for African Americans.
To support his plea, Banneker included within his letter a handwritten manuscript of an almanac for 1792 containing his ephemeris with his astronomical calculations. He retained handwritten copies of the letter and Jefferson's August 30, 1791, reply in a volume of manuscripts that became part of a journal.[106]
In late 1792, James Angell published a Baltimore edition of Banneker's 1793 almanac that contained copies of Banneker's letter and Jefferson's reply.[107] Soon afterwards, a Philadelphia printer distributed two sequential editions of a widely circulated pamphlet that also contained the letter and reply.[108]
The Universal Asylum, and Columbian Magazine also published Banneker's letter and Jefferson's reply in Philadelphia in late 1792.[109] The Magazine's editors (A Society of Gentlemen) titled the letter as being "from the famous self-taught astronomer, Benjamin Banneker, a black man".[109]
In his letter, Banneker accused Jefferson of criminally using fraud and violence to oppress his slaves by stating:
.... Sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that altho you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of those rights and privileges which he had conferred upon them, that you should at the same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the Same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to your Selves.[104][110]
The letter ended:
And now Sir, I Shall conclude and Subscribe my Self with the most profound respect, Your most Obedient humble Servant Benjamin Banneker[104][111]
Jefferson's reply did not directly respond to Banneker's accusations, but instead expressed his support for the advancement of his "black brethren". His reply, which writers have characterized as "courteous", "polite", "ambivalent", "ambiguous", "evasive", "tepid" and "noncommittal",[112] stated:
Philadelphia Aug. 30. 1791. Sir, I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th. instant and for the Almanac it contained. no body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colours of men, & that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa & America. I can add with truth that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising the condition both of their body & mind to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecillity of their present existence, and other circumstance which cannot be neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your almanac to Monsieur de Condorcet, Secretary of the Academy of sciences at Paris, and member of the Philanthropic society because I considered it as a document to which your whole colour had a right for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them. I am with great esteem, Sir, Your most obedt. humble servt. Th: Jefferson[113]
When writing his letter, Banneker informed Jefferson that his 1791 work with Andrew Ellicott on the District boundary survey had affected his work on his 1792 ephemeris and almanac by stating:
.... And altho I had almost declined to make my calculation for the ensuing year, in consequence of that time which I had allotted therefor being taking up at the Federal Territory by the request of Mr. Andrew Ellicott, ....[104][115]
On the same day that he replied to Banneker (August 30, 1791), Jefferson sent a letter to the Marquis de Condorcet that contained the following paragraph relating to Banneker's race, abilities, almanac and work with Andrew Ellicott:
I am happy to be able to inform you that we have now in the United States a negro, the son of a black man born in Africa, and of a black woman born in the United States, who is a very respectable mathematician. I procured him to be employed under one of our chief directors in laying out the new federal city on the Patowmac, & in the intervals of his leisure, while on that work, he made an Almanac for the next year, which he sent me in his own hand writing, & which I inclose to you. I have seen very elegant solutions of Geometrical problems by him. Add to this that he is a very worthy & respectable member of society. He is a free man. I shall be delighted to see these instances of moral eminence so multiplied as to prove that the want of talents observed in them is merely the effect of their degraded condition, and not proceeding from any difference in the structure of the parts on which intellect depends.[116][117]
In 1809, three years after Banneker's death, Jefferson expressed a different opinion of Banneker in a letter to Joel Barlow that criticized a "diatribe" that a French abolitionist, Henri Grégoire, had written in 1808:[118]
the whole do not amount in point of evidence, to what we know ourselves of Banneker. we know he had spherical trigonometry enough to make almanacs, but not without the suspicion of aid from Ellicot, who was his neighbor & friend, & never missed an opportunity of puffing him. I have a long letter from Banneker which shews him to have had a mind of very common stature indeed.[119][120]
Banneker never married.[121] For reasons that are unclear, the four editions of his 1797 almanac were the last ones that printers published.[122][123] After selling much of his homesite to the Ellicotts and others,[15][124] he probably died in his log cabin nine years later on October 19, 1806, aged 74.[125] (Some sources state that Banneker died on Sunday, October 9, 1806, which was actually a Thursday.)[3][126] His chronic alcoholism, which worsened as he aged, may have contributed to his death.[127]
An obituary concluded:
Mr. Banneker is a prominent instance to prove that a descendant of Africa is susceptible of as great mental improvement and deep knowledge into the mysteries of nature as that of any other nation.[128]
On the day of his funeral in 1806, a fire burned Banneker's log cabin to the ground, destroying many of his belongings and papers.[3][130][131] In 1813, William Goodard, who had published the Baltimore edition of Banneker's 1792 almanac (Banneker's first published almanac), donated the manuscript for the almanac to the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts.[132]
The Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston holds in its collections the August 17, 1791, handwritten letter that Banneker sent to Thomas Jefferson.[133] Jefferson endorsed the letter as received on August 21, 1791.[134]
The Library of Congress holds a copy of Jefferson's August 30, 1791, handwritten reply to Banneker.[135] Jefferson produced this document on a letter copying press made by James Watt & Co. that he used before he sent his reply to Banneker.[136] He retained the copy in his files.[137]
The Library of Congress also holds a copy of Jefferson's August 30, 1791, handwritten letter to the Marquis de Condorcet that described Banneker's race, abilities, almanac and work with Andrew Ellicott.[116] Jefferson produced this document on his copying press before sending the handwritten letter to the Marquis.[138]
The Library of Congress holds a handwritten duplicate of Jefferson's letter to the Marquis de Condorcet. The pagination in the duplicate differs from that in the copy that Jefferson produced on his copying press. The Library attributes the duplicate to Jefferson.[139]
The Princeton University Library holds within its Straus Autograph Collection the recipient's copy of the handwritten letter that Jefferson sent to Joel Barlow in 1809. Jefferson's letter cited the letter that Banneker had sent to him in 1791. Barlow endorsed Jefferson's letter after he received it.[140]
The Library of Congress holds a copy of Jefferson's 1809 letter to Joel Barlow that Jefferson had retained in his files after sending his handwritten letter to Barlow.[119] Jefferson used a polygraph device that enabled him to make the copy at the same time that he was writing the original. An Englishman, John Isaac Hawkins, and an American, Charles Willson Peale, had earlier developed this device with the help of Jefferson's suggestions.[140][141]
Interior of Benjamin Banneker Museum in Oella, Maryland. A drop-leaf table that Banneker used is in the background. (2017)
In 1987, a member of the Ellicott family, which had retained Banneker's only remaining journal, donated that document and other Banneker manuscripts to the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore.[142] The family also retained several items that Banneker had used after borrowing them from George Ellicott, as well as some that Banneker himself had owned.[130][143]
In 1996, a descendant of George Ellicott decided to sell at auction some of those items, including a drop-leaf table, candlesticks, candle molds, maps, letters and diaries.[144] Although supporters of the planned Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum in Oella, Maryland, had hoped to obtain these and several other items related to Banneker and the Ellicotts, a Virginia investment banker won most of the items with a series of bids that totaled $85,000. The purchaser stated that he expected to keep some of the items and to donate the rest to the planned African American Civil War Memorial museum in Washington, D.C.[145]
In 1997, it was announced that the artifacts would initially be exhibited in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and then loaned to the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis, Maryland. After completion of the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum in Oella, the artifacts would be loaned to that facility for a period of twenty years.[146] The Oella museum displayed the table, candle molds and candlesticks after it opened in 1998.[147]
A substantial mythology exaggerating Banneker's accomplishments has developed during the two centuries that have elapsed since his death, becoming a part of African-American culture.[2] Several such urban legends describe Banneker's alleged activities in the Washington, D.C., area around the time that he assisted Andrew Ellicott in the federal district boundary survey.[40][148][149] Others involve his clock, his astronomical works, his almanacs and his journals.[148][150]
A United States postage stamp and the names of a number of recreational and cultural facilities, schools, streets, and other facilities and institutions throughout the United States have commemorated Banneker's documented and mythical accomplishments throughout the years since he lived. In 1983, Rita Dove, a future Poet Laureate of the United States, wrote a biographical poem about Banneker while on the faculty of Arizona State University.[151]
Banneker, Benjamin (1792a). Banneker's Almanack and Ephemeris for the Year of Our Lord 1793; being The First After Bissextile or Leap Year. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by Joseph Crukshank, No. 87, High-Street.
^ ab(1) Whiteman, Maxwell. "BENJAMIN BANNEKER: Surveyor and Astronomer: 1731–1806: A biographical note". In Whiteman, Maxwell (ed.). Banneker's Almanack and Ephemeris for the Year of Our Lord 1793; being The First After Bisixtile or Leap Year and Banneker's almanac, for the year 1795: Being the Third After Leap Year: Afro-American History Series: Rhistoric Publication No. 202. Rhistoric publications (1969 Reprint ed.). Rhistoric Publications, a division of Microsurance Inc. LCCN72077039. OCLC907004619. Retrieved June 14, 2017 – via HathiTrust Digital Library. A number of fictional accounts of Banneker are available. All of them were dependent upon the following: Proceedings of the Maryland Historical Society for 1837 and 1854 which respectively contain the accounts of Banneker by John B. H. Latrobe and Martha E. Tyson. They were subsequently reprinted as pamphlets. (2) Bedini, 1969, p. 7. "The name of Benjamin Banneker, the Afro-American self-taught mathematician and almanac-maker, occurs again and again in the several published accounts of the survey of Washington City [D.C.] begun in 1791, but with conflicting reports of the role which he played. Writers have implied a wide range of involvement, from the keeper of horses or supervisor of the woodcutters, to the full responsibility of not only the survey of the ten-mile square but the design of the city as well. None of these accounts has described the contribution which Banneker actually made." (3) Bedini, 1972, p. 126. "Benjamin Banneker's name does not appear on any of the contemporary documents or records relating to the selection, planning, and survey of the City of Washington. An exhaustive search of the files under Public Buildings and Grounds in the U.S. National Archives and of the several collections in the Library of Congress have proved fruitless. A careful perusal of all known surviving correspondence and papers of Andrew Ellicott and of Pierre Charles L'Enfant has likewise failed to reveal mention of Banneker. This conclusively dispels the legend that after L'Enfant's dismissal and his refusal to make available his plan of the city, Ellicott was able to reconstruct it in detail from Banneker's recollection. Equally untrue are legends that Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State invited Banneker to luncheon at the White House. Jefferson during this period was in Philadelphia, the national capital had not yet been built, and there was no White House.” (4) Bedini, 1972, p. 186. "Another important item in the 1793 almanac was "A Plan Of a Peace-Office for the United States," which aroused a good deal of comment at the time. It was believed by many to have been Banneker's own work. Even within recent decades its authorship has been debated. In 1947 it was identified without question as the work of Dr. Benjamin Rush, in a volume of his writings that appeared in that year." (5) Bedini, 1972, p. 403, Item 85 "William Loren Katz. Eyewitness, the Negro in American History. New York. Putnam Publishing Corp., 1967 pp. 19–31, 61–62. Brief account of Banneker's career and contributions, which are stated to have been in "the fields of science, mathematics, and political affairs," illustrated with the fictional portrait from Allen's work (item 56) and the cover page of the almanac for 1793. Among the misstatements are the claims that Banneker produced the first clock made entirely with American parts, that Jefferson promised Banneker that he would end slavery, that George Ellicott worked with Banneker in the survey of Washington, that Banneker was appointed to the Commission at a suggestion made by Jefferson to Washington, and that Banneker selected the sites of the principal buildings. The fiction that Banneker re-created L'Enfant's plan from memory is again presented, and his almanacs are said to have been published for a period of ten years." (6) Boyd, Julian P., ed. (1974). "Locating the Federal District: Editorial Note: Footnote number 119". The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: 24 January–31 March 1791. Vol. 19. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 41–43. ISBN9780691185255. LCCN50007486. OCLC1045069058. Retrieved March 27, 2019 – via Google Books. Recent biographical accounts of Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806), a mulatto whose father was a native African and whose grandmother was English, have done his memory a disservice by obscuring his real achievements under a cloud of extravagant claims to scientific accomplishment that have no foundation in fact. The single notable exception is Silvio A. Bedini's The Life of Benjamin Banneker (New York, 1972), a work of painstaking research and scrupulous attention to accuracy which also benefits from the author's discovery of important and hitherto unavailable manuscript sources. However, as Bedini points out, the story of Banneker's involvement in the survey of the Federal District "rests on extremely meager documentation" (p. 104). This consists of a single mention by TJ, two brief statements by Banneker himself, and the newspaper allusion quoted above. In consequence, Bedini's otherwise reliable biography accepts the version of Banneker's role in this episode as presented in reminiscences of nineteenth-century authors. These recollections, deriving in large part from members of the Ellicott family, who were prompted by Quaker inclinations to justice and equality, have compounded the confusion. The nature of TJ's connection with Banneker is treated in the Editorial Note to the group of documents under 30 Aug. 1791, but because of the obscured record it is necessary here to attempt a clarification of the role of this modest, self-taught tobacco farmer in the laying out of the national capital. First of all, because of unwarranted claims to the contrary, it must be pointed out that there is no evidence whatever that Banneker had anything to do with the survey of the Federal City or indeed with the final establishment of the boundaries of the Federal District. All available testimony shows that he was present only during the few weeks early in 1791 when the rough preliminary survey of the ten mile square was made; that, after this was concluded and before the final survey was begun, he returned to his farm and his astronomical studies in April, accompanying Ellicott part way on his brief journey back to Philadelphia; and that thenceforth he had no connection with the mapping of the seat of government. ... In any case, Banneker's participation in the surveying of the Federal District was unquestionably brief and his role uncertain. (7) Martel, Erich (February 20, 1994). "The Egyptian Illusion". Opinions. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2018. Teachers who want reliable information on African American history often don't know where to turn. Many have unfortunately looked to unreliable books and publications by Afrocentric writers. The African American Baseline Essays, developed by the public school system in Portland, Ore., are the most widespread Afrocentric teaching material. Educators should be aware of their crippling flaws. .... "Thomas Jefferson appointed Benjamin Banneker to survey the site for the capital, Washington, D.C.; ...." according to the essay on African American scientists. Had the author consulted "The Life of Benjamin Banneker" by Silvio Bedini, considered the definitive biography, he would have discovered no evidence for these claims. Jefferson appointed Andrew Ellicott to conduct the survey; Ellicott made Banneker his assistant for three months in 1791. (8) Shipler, David K. (1998). "The Myths of America". A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 196–197. ISBN0679734546. LCCN97002810. OCLC39849003 – via Google Books. The Banneker story, impressive as it was, got embellished in 1987, when the public school system in Portland, Oregon, published African-American Baseline Essays, a thick stack of loose-leaf background papers for teachers, commissioned to encourage black history instruction. They have been used in Detroit, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Newark, and scattered schools elsewhere, although they have been attacked for gross inaccuracy in an entire literature of detailed criticism by respected historians. .... (9) Bedini, 1999, p. 43. "Banneker's clock was by no means the first timepiece in tidewater Maryland, as occasionally has erroneously been claimed. Timepieces were well known and available from the very earliest English settlements, ...." (10) Bedini, 1999, pp. 132–136. "An exhaustive search of government repositories, including the Public Buildings and Grounds files in the National Archives, and various collections in the Library of Congress, failed to turn up Banneker's name on any of the contemporary documents or records related to the selection, planning and survey of the City of Washington. Nor was he mentioned in any of the surviving correspondence and papers of Andrew Ellicott and of Pierre Charles L'Enfant. .... Although the exact date of Banneker's departure from the survey is not specified in Ellicott's report of expenditures, it occurred sometime late in the month of April 1791, following the arrival of one of Ellicott's brothers. It was not until some ten months after Banneker's departure from the scene that L'Enfant was dismissed, by means of a letter from Jefferson dated February 27, 1792. This conclusively dispels any basis for the legend that after L'Enfant's dismissal and his refusal to make available his plan of the city, Banneker recollected the plan in detail from which Ellicott was able to reconstruct it. Equally untrue and in fact impossible is the legend that Thomas Jefferson as secretary of state invited Banneker to luncheon at the White House. Jefferson during this period was in Philadelphia, the national capital in Washington had yet not been built, and there was no White House." (11) Toscano, 2000.Archived September 12, 2019, at the Wayback Machine "Some writers, in an effort to build up their hero, claim that Banneker was the designer of Washington. Other writers have asserted that Banneker's role in the survey is a myth without documentation. Neither group is correct. Bedini does a professional job of sorting out the truth from the falsehoods." (12) Berne, Bernard H. (May 20, 2000). "District History Lesson". OP/ED: Letters to the Editor. Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post. p. A.22. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved March 23, 2011. Austin H. Kiplinger and Walter E. Washington write that a proposed city museum at Mount Vernon Square will remind visitors that "George Washington engaged Pierre L' Enfant to map the city and about how Benjamin Banneker [helped] complete the project" [Close to Home, May 7]. Let's hope not. Benjamin Banneker performed astronomical observations in 1791 when assisting Maj. Andrew Ellicott in a survey of the federal District's boundaries. He departed three months after the survey began, more than a year before its completion. Meanwhile, a "Plan for the City of Washington" was drawn by one "Peter Charles L'Enfant" (sic). When George Washington chose to dismiss L'Enfant, it was Ellicott who revised L'Enfant's plan and completed the city's mapping. Banneker played no part in this. (13) Murdock, Gail T. (November 11, 2002). Benjamin Banneker – the man and the myths. Maryland Historical Society. ISBN0938420593. This very well-researched book also helps lay to rest some of the myths about what Banneker did and did not do during his most unusual lifetime; unfortunately, many websites and books continue to propagate these myths, probably because those authors do not understand what Banneker actually accomplished. Many state, for example, that Banneker's clock was an exact copy of one he saw, which is not true – he figured out the mathematics and physics on his own for a clock made out of wood, instead of trying simply to copy the small pocket watch that he was lent to observe. However remarkable this clock was, it was not the first clock made in America. Other sources continually repeat the myth that when Pierre l'Enfant was fired from the job of laying out the new Federal City, Benjamin Banneker recreated l'Enfant's plans from memory. Bedini lays this myth to rest .....((cite book)): |work= ignored (help) (14) Cerami, 2002, p. 142. "He (Banneker) has existed in dim memory mainly on mangled ideas about his work, and even utter falsehoods that are unwise attempts to glorify a man who needs no such embellishments." (15) Levine, Michael (November 10, 2003). "L'Enfant designed more than D.C.: He designed a 200-year-old controversy". History: Planning Our Capital City: Get to know the District of Columbia. DCpages.com. Archived from the original on December 6, 2003. Retrieved December 31, 2016. (16) Fasanelli, Florence D, "Benjamin Banneker's Life and Mathematics: Web of Truth? Legends as Facts; Man vs. Legend", a talk given on January 8, 2004, at the MAA/AMS meeting in Phoenix, AZ. Cited in Mahoney, John F (July 2010). "Benjamin Banneker's Inscribed Equilateral Triangle – References". Loci. Mathematical Association of America. 2. Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved December 26, 2017. (17) Hawkins, Don Alexander (November 12, 2005). "Benjamin Banneker, Man and Myth". Opinions. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 10, 2021. Retrieved March 10, 2021. Benjamin Banneker's achievements, against the odds, made him an American hero, but he has been mythologized to some extent. For example, John Lockwood said Banneker "helped re-create the plans for the city of Washington," but Banneker actually finished his work on the survey of the perimeter of the District and went home to Ellicott Mills in April 1791, never to return. Pierre L'Enfant did not depart Washington until the following February, leaving Benjamin Ellicott, a brother of the principal surveyor, to draw a small version of the plan to be engraved. (18) Weatherly, Myra (2006). "An Important Task". Benjamin Banneker: American Scientific Pioneer. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Compass Point Books. pp. 76–77. ISBN0756515793. LCCN2005028708. OCLC61864300. Retrieved August 27, 2019 – via Google Books. The conflicts surrounding L'Enfant gave rise to an often–repeated story that involved Banneker. According to the story, Banneker, having seen the original design for the city only once, re-created it in detail after L'Enfant returned to France with the original plans. This legend has led some people to credit Banneker with a greater role in creating the capital city. However, there is no evidence that Banneker contributed anything to the design of the city or that he ever met L'Enfant. Modern historians acknowledge that the inaccurate information—the myths surrounding Banneker—resulted in his contributions to the city being overvalued. Unfortunately, those myths sometimes obscure Banneker's greatest contribution to society—the almanacs that he would publish in his later years.. (19) Johnson, Richard (2007). "Banneker, Benjamin (1731–1806)". Online Encyclopedia of Significant People and Places in African American History. BlackPast.org. Archived from the original on March 9, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2015. (Banneker's) life and work have become enshrouded in legend and anecdote. (20) Bigbytes. "Benjamin Banneker Stories". dcsymbols dot com. Archived from the original on December 8, 2010. Retrieved January 1, 2017. (21) Arnebeck, Bob. "Ellicott's letter to the commissioners on engraving the plan of the city, in which no reference is made to Banneker". The General and the Plan. Bob Arnebeck's Web Pages. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved May 6, 2012. How did the myth of Banneker helping Ellicott remember the plan take hold? I believe it is because the first name of the brother who helped Ellicott is Benjamin, and so Benjamin Banneker was mistaken for Benjamin Ellicott. I think it is nonsense to assume that when L'Enfant refused access to the "original" plan that meant that Ellicott had to rely on memory to reconstruct the plan. L'Enfant had the "large" plan. Ellicott probably had access to small renditions or drafts of the plan which, of course, he and his brother had helped create by their surveys of the city. (22) Maryland Historical Society Library Department (February 6, 2014). "The Dreams of Benjamin Banneker". H. Furlong Baldwin Library: Underbelly. Maryland Historical Society. Archived from the original on September 17, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2020. Over the 200 years since the death of Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806), his story has become a muddled combination of fact, inference, misinformation, hyperbole, and legend. Like many other figures throughout history, the small amount of surviving source material has nurtured the development of a degree of mythology surrounding his story. (23) "A look into Benjamin Banneker's 1793 Almanac". Book of the Month: Banneker's Almanac. Haverford, Pennsylvania: Haverford College. April 18, 2016. Archived from the original on October 21, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2020. In 1806, shortly after Banneker's death, a fire at his home destroyed most of his personal papers (Gillispie). This gap in substantial archival material has hardly hindered the development of the Benjamin Banneker legend; perhaps it has even aided its growth. ..... The narrative that tells of Banneker's life as one of mythical success and unprecedented exceptionalism easily draws an audience, but it washes over what might be more intellectually rewarding questions about the man's life. .... For now, the legend of Benjamin Banneker will continue to exist in his old almanacs and in present culture, serving as an inspiring enigma for those who wonder what lies beyond the surface-level stories of the past. (24) Arnebeck, Bob (January 2, 2017). "Washington Examined: Seat of Empire: the General and the Plan 1790 to 1801". Blogger. Archived from the original on October 22, 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2021. Meanwhile Andrew Ellicott, the nation's Surveyor General, finished surveying the boundary lines of the federal district, and joined L'Enfant in laying out the city. (Ellicott showed a fine sense of the opportunity presented by the project by hiring a mathematician who was a "free Negro," to help with the survey. The Georgetown newspaper noted the significance of Benjamin Banneker's participation but, nearly sixty years old, he left the arduous project in May and returned to Baltimore to publish his almanac, and thus, contrary to legend, had nothing to do with L'Enfant's plan.) (25) Blakely, Julia (February 15, 2017). "America's First Known African American Scientist and Mathematician". Unbound (blog). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Libraries, Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on August 15, 2017. Retrieved August 15, 2017. ..., much myth and anecdote surround the life and work of Banneker. An uncertain legacy grew, in part, from the destruction of almost all his papers and possessions when his log cabin home burnt down at the moment he was being buried. (26) Bellis, Mary (updated June 20, 2017). "Biography of Benjamin Banneker, Author and Naturalist". ThoughtCo. New York: Dotdash. Archived from the original on October 14, 2017. Retrieved December 11, 2020. Banneker's life became the source of legend after his death, with many attributing certain accomplishments to him for which there is little or no evidence in the historical record.((cite web)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) (27) Burns, Janet (May 23, 2018). "Benjamin Banneker". International Times. Retrieved April 28, 2021. (Banneker's clock) may have been the first clock ever assembled completely from American parts, according to (Elizabeth Ross) Haynes (although other historians have since disputed this). ... The plans for the large city were laid out by French architect and engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfant, who volunteered for service in the American Revolution's Continental Army and was hired for the project by George Washington in 1791. Before long, however, tensions mounted over its direction and progress of the project, and when L'Enfant was fired in 1792, he took off with the plans in tow. But according to legend, the plans weren't actually lost: Banneker and the Ellicotts had worked closely with L'Enfant and his plans while surveying the city's site. As the University of Massachusetts explains, Banneker had actually committed the plans to memory "[and] was able to reproduce the complete layout—streets, parks, major buildings." However, the University of Massachusetts also points out that other historians doubt Banneker had any involvement in this part of the survey at all, instead saying that Andrew and his brother were the ones who recreated L'Enfant's plan. It's an intriguing myth, but it may only be that. (28) Biography.com Editors (April 12, 2019). "Benjamin Banneker Biography". The Biography.com website. A&E Television Networks. Archived from the original on June 23, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2020. With limited materials having been preserved related to Banneker's life and career, there's been a fair amount of legend and misinformation presented.((cite web)): |author= has generic name (help) (29) Keene, Louis. "Benjamin Banneker: The Black Tobacco Farmer Who The Presidents Couldn't Ignore". The White House Historical Association. Archived from the original on August 31, 2019. Retrieved February 25, 2020. Perhaps owing to the scarcity of recorded fact about his remarkable life, and because he was often invoked symbolically to advance social causes like abolition, Banneker's story has been susceptible to mythmaking. He has been incorrectly credited with drawing the street grid of Washington, D.C., making the first clock on the Eastern seaboard, being the first professional astronomer in America, and discovering the seventeen-year birth cycle of cicadas. (30) Fayyad, Abdallah (June 5, 2020). "D.C.'s Street Plan Is A Monument To Democracy". dcist. Washington, D.C.: WAMU 88.5: American University Radio. Archived from the original on April 29, 2021. Washington's core was laid out by Pierre L'Enfant, a French-American engineer and city planner, when the federal government decided it needed a new capitol. George Washington carved out 10 miles square on the Potomac River, and appointed L'Enfant in 1791 to plan an ambitious new seat of government. But L'Enfant didn't exactly carry out his vision alone: He was dismissed from the job in 1792—and he reportedly took his layout with him. That's when Benjamin Banneker, a free black man who had surveyed the capital and helped establish its boundary points, stepped in. Banneker is said to have redrawn L'Enfant's plans from memory in two days, though whether actually he did has been debated by historians; his history and legacy have yet to be fully excavated. (31) Brownell, Richard (updated December 17, 2020) (February 8, 2016). "Benjamin Banneker's Capital Contributions". Boundary Stones: WETA's History Blog. Arlington County, Virginia: WETA. Archived from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2021. L'Enfant's plans were well received, but he proved to be extremely difficult to work with, arguing incessantly with the commissioners in charge of the capital project. .... When L'Enfant left the project, he took all the designs with him, leaving the project in disarray. Unsure of how to proceed, Ellicott and the other planners feared they might have to start from scratch. According to writer Gaius Chamberlain, "Banneker surprised them when he asserted that he could reproduce the plans from memory and in two days did exactly as he had promised." There has been much controversy over the years about whether such an event actually happened. Some historians claim that many of the facts about Banneker's life were embellished or mythologized, leaving the fact that he was able to reimagine L'Enfant's plans in dispute. Others have theorized that it was Andrew Ellicott's brother Benjamin who aided in redrawing the plans from memory, theorizing that he was confused with Banneker because they shared the same first name.((cite web)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) (32) Fowler, Jermaine (2021). "Podcast #7: Benjamin Banneker (transcript)". The Humanity Archive. Archived from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2021. So when a lot of people think of Benjamin Banneker, they may know him because of the story of him assisting with the layout of the nation's capital in Washington, DC. And I was troubled to find out that with no real evidence legend has it that Benjamin, Banneker single handedly laid out in, develop the plans for Washington DC himself with no help. And this is the popular narrative in a lot of circles. And even in the mainstream media, the Washington Post published the story citing this is fact, and this is part of his mythology and it's probably untrue, but it made me wonder, like, why do people embellish history? Why would someone take a man like Banneker with the real moral and professional greatness, and then exaggerate a story with things uncertain. Why do we embellish historical figures in general? Maybe in this case, there is something to prove black people have latched onto the great figures to prove competence and to prove value. Maybe it really was thought to be the truth.
^ abcHeinegg, Paul (December 11, 2016). "Banneker Family". Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware: Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware: Adams-Butler. Archived from the original on June 24, 2017. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
^(1) Banneker, 1792b, p. 6. "Sir, I freely and cheerfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race, and in that color which is natural to them of the deepest dye" (2) McHenry, pp. 185-186. "BENJAMIN BANNEKER, a free Negro, has calculated an Almanack for the ensuing Year, 1792, ..... . "This Man is about fifty-nine years in age; he was born in Baltimore county; his father was an African, and his mother, the offspring of African parents." (3) Latrobe, p. 6. "His father was a native African, and his mother the child of natives of Africa; so that to no admixture of the blood of the white man was he indebted for his peculiar and extraordinary abilities."
^(1) Tyson, p. 4. (2) Johnson. "Benjamin Banneker, free black, farmer, mathematician, and astronomer, was born on November 9, 1731, the son of freed slaves Robert and Mary Bannaky, probably near the Patapsco River southeast of Baltimore, Maryland, where his father owned a small farm. For some years, Benjamin seems to have served as an indentured laborer on the Prince George’s County plantation of Mary Welsh, who had dealings with the Bannaky family and in 1773 executed her dead husband’s instructions to release several of her labor force including “Negro Ben, born free age 43.” Walsh was surely not Banneker’s grandmother, as argued by many biographers, but she did leave him a substantial legacy. He then lived alone as a tobacco farmer near the Patapsco River."
^(1) "Banaka Map — Satellite Images of Banaka". maplandia.com: google maps world gazetteer. 2016. Archived from the original on May 6, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2020. This place is situated in Klay, Bomi Terr., Liberia, its geographical coordinates are 6° 49' 44" North, 10° 46' 21" West and its original name (with diacritics) is Banaka. (2) "Banaka / Bomi County". getamap.net. 2020. Archived from the original on May 6, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2020. Banaka (Banaka) is a populated place .... in Bomi County (Bomi), Liberia (Africa) .... . It is located at an elevation of 117 meters above sea level. (3) "Where is Banaka in Liberia Located?". GoMapper. 2020. Archived from the original on May 6, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2020. Banaka is a place with a very small population in the country of Liberia .... . Cities, towns and places near Banaka include Bonja, Kuodi, Wuefa and Fassa. The closest major cities include Monrovia, Freetown, Conakry and Daloa. (4) Coordinates of Banaka: 6°49′43″N10°46′19″W / 6.828698°N 10.7719071°W / 6.828698; -10.7719071 (Banaka)
^Heinegg, Paul (2021). "Banneker Family". Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware: Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware: Adams-Butler. Archived from the original on September 14, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
^(1) Glawe "Richard Gist 1737 Robert Bannaky Benjamin Bannaky +conveyance+
This indenture made this tenth day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred thirty seven between Richard Gist of Baltimore County in the province of Maryland grant of the one part, Robert Bannaky and Benjamin Bannaky this now of the County and province aforementioned of the other part, Witnesseth that the deed Richard Gist for and in consideration of the sum of seven thousand pounds of tobacco whence paid to the said Richard Gist the receipt whereof he do able by these presents acquits and discharges them the said Robert Bannaky and Benjamin Bannaky his son thereon heirs and assign for over one hundred acres of land lying in the said county circumscribed by the bounds hereafter by profit being the moiety of a hundred acres of land. J. Wells Stokes" (2) Facsimile of handwritten deed conveying property from Richard Gist to Robert Bannaky and Benjamin Bannaky. In Clark, James W., Maryland Commission on Afro-American and Indian History and Culture, Annapolis, Maryland (June 14, 1976). "Benjamin Banneker Homesite"(PDF). Maryland State Historical Trust: Inventory Form for State Historic Sites Survey. Annapolis, Maryland: Maryland State Archives. p. 16. Archived(PDF) from the original on August 18, 2015. Retrieved November 15, 2015.((cite web)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^(1) McHenry, pp. 185-186. "This man is about fifty-nine years of age; he was born in Baltimore county; his father was an African, and his mother the offspring of African parents. His father and mother having obtained their freedom, were enabled to send him to an obscure school, where he learned, as a boy, reading, writing, and arithmetic, as far as double position. (2) "Double position". Webster's 1913 Dictionary. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020. (Arith.) the method of solving problems by proceeding with each of two assumed numbers, according to the conditions of the problem, and by comparing the difference of the results with those of the numbers, deducing the correction to be applied to one of them to obtain the true result. (3) Adams, Daniel (1807). "Section III. § 10. Position: Double Position". The Scholar's Arithmetic; or, Federal Accountant (4th ed.). Keene, New Hampshire: Printed by and for John Prentiss, (proprietor of the copy-right) and sold at his book-store, wholesale and retail.--Sold also by the principal booksellers in New-England, and at the Rensselaer book-store, Troy, N.Y. pp. 201–202. LCCN38021948. OCLC1153971636. Retrieved June 22, 2020 – via HathiTrust Digital Library.
^(1) Graham, 1949, p. 45. Not until all the tobacco was in and "the Christmas" over was the school opened. Among the boys who sat on the smooth log facing Peter Heinrich was the dark boy. .... The dark boy's name seemed rather long. For Peter Heinrich wrote "Benjamin Banneker". .... And thus the spelling was changed from that in the earliest records. (2) Bedini, 1972, p. 300. "Martha Tyson's posthumous book was the last work about Banneker to be based on original materials. During the next several decades, numerous articles in periodicals and newspapers mentioned Banneker's life and works, but each was based on earlier publications without contributing new materials. .... Finally, in 1949 another biography of Banneker appeared. This work by Shirley Graham was highly fictionalized and written for young people. It became popular, but the lack of distinction between fact and fiction in its presentation, while a compliment to the writing skill of Shirley Graham, has resulted in yet more confusion concerning Banneker's achievements and their importance."
^Graham, 1949, p. 52. "The school was now housed in a building all its own and was supported by the Society of Friends. Though Ben was no longer a regular attendant he still considered himself a pupil. Very often when his days work was done he rode over to Master Heinrich's house for talk or to exchange a book"
^ ab"Historic Ellicott City's History". ellicottcity.net. Ellicott City, Maryland: Ellicott City Graphic Arts. Archived from the original on August 10, 2015. Retrieved February 21, 2016.
^McHenry, p. 186. "He (Banneker) now took up the idea for calculations for an almanac, and actually completed and entire set for the last year, upon his original stock of arithmetic. Encouraged by this first attempt, he entered upon his calculation for 1792, which as well as the former, he began and finished without the least information, or assistance, from any person or other books, than those that I have mentioned; so that, whatever merit is attached to his present performance, is exclusively and peculiarly his own."
^"Text of Residence Act". American Memory: A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 – 1875: Statutes at Large, 1st Congress, 2nd Session, p. 130, July 16, 1790: Chapter 28: An Act for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of the United States. Library of Congress. Archived from the original on September 13, 2009. Retrieved June 9, 2018.
^Bedini, 1972, p. 137. "He (Banneker) served in the true sense of an assistant to Ellicott himself, making notes for him, making calculations as required, and using the astronomical equipment for establishing base points."
^Bedini, 1972, p. 103. "Curiously enough, the record of Banneker's participation rests on extremely meager documentation, consisting of a statement written in a letter by Thomas Jefferson and two statements made by Banneker himself."
^(1) "New Federal City"(PDF). Columbian Centennial. No. 744. Boston, Massachusetts: Benjamin Russell. May 7, 1791. Archived(PDF) from the original on June 30, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2016 – via boundarystones.org. (2) Bedini, 1972, pp. 124, 314
^(1) Bedini, 1969, p. 25. (2) "New Federal City"(PDF). Columbian Centennial. No. 744. Boston, Massachusetts: Benjamin Russell. May 7, 1791. Archived(PDF) from the original on June 30, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2016 – via boundarystones.org.
^Banneker, 1792b, pp. 9–10. "And altho I had almost declined to make my calculation for the ensuing year, in consequence of that time which I had allotted therefor being taking up at the Federal Territory by the request of Mr. Andrew Ellicott, yet finding myself under several engagments to Printers of this state, to whom I had communicated my design, upon my return to my place of residence, I industriously applied myself thereto, ....".
^(1) Davis, Nancy M. (August 26, 2001). "Andrew Ellicott: Astronomer…mathematician…surveyor". Philadelphia Connection. Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation: Philadelphia Chapter. Archived from the original on September 29, 2018. Retrieved March 1, 2019. After the war, he (Ellicott) returned to Fountainvale, the family home in Ellicott Upper Mills, and published a series of almanacs, The United States Almanack. (The earliest known copy is dated 1782.) (2) Drake, p. 214. "The MARYLAND, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North-Carolina Almanack and Ephemeris for 1781. By Andrew Ellicott. Baltimore: M. K. Goddard: Philadelphia: Benjamin January." (3) Drake, p. 511. "UNITED States Almanack for 1782. By Andrew Ellicott. Chatham: Shepard Kollock." (4) Drake, p. 215. "ELLICOTT'S Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris for 1786. Baltimore: Goddard and Langworthy." (5) Drake, p. 216. "ELLICOTT'S Maryland and Virginia Almanack, and Ephemeris for 1787. Baltimore: John Hayes." (6) Drake, p. 216. "The MARYLAND and Virginia Almanack, and Ephemeris for 1788. By Andrew Ellicott. Baltimore: John Hayes." (7) Drake, p. 216. "POOR Robin's Almanac for 1788. By Andrew Ellicott. Frederick-Town: Matthias Bartgis. .... 2112" (8) Drake, p. 217. "ELLICOTT'S Maryland and Virginia Almanack, and Ephemeris for 1789. Baltimore: John Hayes." (9) Drake, p. 217. "ELLICOTT'S Maryland and Virginia Almanack, and Ephemeris for 1790. Baltimore: John Hayes." (10) Drake, p. 217. "ELLICOTT'S Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris for 1791. Baltimore: John Hayes." (11) Bedini, 1999, pp. 97, 109, 210.
^(1) Morrison, p. 70. "The New-Jersey almanack for 1788. The astronomical calculations by Wm. Waring. Trenton: Isaac Collins." (2) Morrison, p. 138. "Poulson's town and country almanac for 1789. The astronomical calculations by Wm. Waring, teacher of mathematics in the Friends' academy. Philadelphia: Zachariah Poulson, junior". (3) Morrison, p. 70. "The New-Jersey almanack for 1789. By Wm. Waring. Trenton: Isaac Collins." (4) Morrison, p. 70. "The New-Jersey almanack for 1790. By Wm. Waring. Trenton: Isaac Collins." (5) Morrison, p. 139. "Poor Will's almanac for 1790. The astronom. calculations by Wm. Waring. Philadelphia: Joseph Crukshank." (6) Morrison, p. 139. "Poulson's town and country almanac for 1790. By Wm. Waring. Philadelphia: Zachariah Poulson, jr." (7) Morrison, p. 139. "Poulson's town and country almanac for 1791. By Wm. Waring. Philadelphia: Zachariah Poulson, jr."
^(1) Morrison, p. 156. "The Virginia Almanac for 1774. By the celebrated Mr. Rittenhouse, Philomath. Williamsburg: William Rind." (2) Morrison, p. 157. "The Virginia Almanac for 1780. By David Rittenhouse, Philo. Williamsburg: J. Dixon & T. Nicolson." (3) Drake, p. 214. "The MARYLAND, Virginia and Pennsylvania Almanack and Ephemeris for 1780. By David Rittenhouse. Baltimore: M. K. Goddard." (5) Morrison, p. 132. "The Continental almanac for 1781. By Anthony Sharpe, Philom. Philadelphia: Francis Bailey." (6) Morrison, p. 132. "The Continental pocket almanac for 1781. By Anthony Sharpe (i.e., David Rittenhouse). Philadelphia: Francis Bailey. 1780."
^Cerami, p. 150. "I am annoyed to find that the subject of my race is so much stressed," he (Banneker) remarked. "The work is either correct or it is not. In this case, I believe it to be perfect."
^(1) Drake, pp. 214–218. (2) Bedini, 1972, pp. 164–173. (3) "Almanac". In Pursuit of a Vision: Two Centuries of Collecting at the American Antiquarian Society. Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society. 2012. Archived from the original on August 15, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2018. Benjamin Banneker. Holographic manuscript of his 1792 almanac and ephemeris, with the published edition: Benjamin Banneker's Almanack. Baltimore: William Goddard and James Angell …, both 1791. Manuscript: Gift of William Goddard, 1813. Published almanac: Gift of Samuel L. Munson, 1925
^(1) List of Banneker's almanacs: Bedini, 1999, pp. 393–396. "Banneker's Letters and Almanacs" (2) List of Banneker's almanacs, with links: "Benjamin Banneker". Shakeospeare. The University of Iowa Libraries. March 3, 2017. Archived from the original on March 14, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
^(1) Bedini, 1999, pp. 225–226. (2) Banneker, 1791, pp. 7–18. (3) Banneker, 1792a, pp. 4–26. (4) Banneker, Benjamin (1792). Page for October(1 digitized image of photograph). Baltimore: Printed and sold, wholesale and retail, by William Goddard and James Angell, at their printing-office, in Market-Street. LCCN98650590. OCLC1053084527. Archived from the original on November 9, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019 – via Flickr. ((cite book)): |work= ignored (help) On display in the Benjamin Banneker Museum, Oella, Maryland. Photographed by F. Delventhal, February 18, 2017. (5) Banneker, 1794, pp. 5–16. (6) Banneker, 1795, pp. 4–15.
^(1) Bedini, 1972, p. 276. "The woodcut represents a representation of Banneker with a tendency to idealize his appearance. It represents a Negro male in his late youth or early middle age, of medium frame. At this time, Banneker was sixty-three years of age and his physical appearance undoubtedly reflected to some degree his past illnesses and discomfort. He was described as being relatively fleshy, which leaves no doubt that the portrait was in fact no more than an artist's conjecture of his appearance." (2) Bedini, 1999, p. 290. "The woodcut appears to have been drawn by an artist who had neither seen Banneker nor heard a description of him but who obviously intended to render an idealized portrait of a black man. It represents a Negro male of medium frame in his late youth. At this time, Banneker was in fact sixty-three years of age, suffering from arthritis or rheumatism, and his physical appearance may have reflected to some degree his past illnesses and disabilities. He was described as being relatively fleshy, with a stocky build, which leaves no doubt that the portrait was in fact no more than an artist's conception of a young male Negro youth."
^(1) Banneker, 1791, pp. 2, 3, 4 (2) Banneker 1792a, p. 2. (3) Latrobe, p. 9: "In their editorial notice, Messrs. Goddard and Angell say, "they feel gratified in the opportunity of presenting to the public, through their press, what must be considered as an extraordinary effort of genius – a complete and accurate Ephemeris for the year 1792, calculated by a sable descendant of Africa," &c. And they further say, that "they flatter themselves that a philanthropic public, in this enlightened era, will be induced to give their patronage and support to this work, not only on account of its intrinsic merits, (it having met the Approbation of several of the most distinguished astronomers of America, particularly the celebrated Mr. Rittenhouse,) but from similar motives to those which induced the editors to give this calculation the preference, the ardent desire of drawing modest merit from obscurity and controverting the long established illiberal prejudice against the blacks."
^(1) Bedini, 1999, p. 151. ".. in 1789 he (Goddard) took as his partner ... James Angell. The partnership continued until August 1792, during the period that Banneker's almanac was being considered for publication." (2) Letter from James McHenry regarding Benjamin Banneker. Baltimore, April 20, 1791.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location (link)InPhillips, pp. 115–116. "The following notice of Banneker is found, first published in his almanac for 1792, and republished with some abridgement in the one of 1793, from which we are making extracts. It was written by Banneker's esteemed admirer, James McHenry, who was afterward senator of Maryland, and evidently a man who appreciated intellect whether in the soul of the black or white. ..." (3) Banneker, 1791, pp. 2, 3, 4. (4) Banneker 1792a, p. 2. "Baltimore, August 20, 1791. BENJAMIN BANNEKER, a free black, is about fifty-nine years of age; he was born in Baltimore county; his father was an African, and his mother the offspring of African parents. – His father and mother having obtained their freedom, were enabled to send him to an obscure school, where he learned, when a boy, reading, writing, and arithmetic as far as double position; and to leave him, at their deaths, a few acres of land, upon which he has supported himself ever since by means of economy and constant labour, and preserved a fair reputation. To struggle incessantly against want is no ways favourable to improvement: what he had learned, however, he did not forget; for as some hours of leisure will occur in the most toilsome life, he availed himself of these, not to read and acquire knowledge from writings of genius and discovery, for of such he had none, but to digest and apply, as occasions presented, the few principles of the few rules of arithmetic he had been taught at school. This kind of mental exercise formed his chief amusement, and soon gave him a facility in calculation that was often serviceable to his neighbours, and at length attracted the attention of the Messrs. Ellicott, a family remarkable for their ingenuity and turn to the useful mechanics. It is about three years since Mr. George Ellicott lent him Mayer's Tables, Ferguson's Astronomy, Leadbeater's Lunar Tables, and some astronomic instruments, but without accompanying them with either hint or instruction, that might further his studies, or lead him to apply them to any useful result. These books and instruments, the first of the kind he had ever seen, opened a new world to Benjamin, and from thenceforward he employed his leisure in astronomical researches. He now took up the idea of the calculations for an Almanack, and actually completed an entire set for the last year, upon his original stock of arithmetic. Encouraged by this first attempt, he entered upon his calculation for 1792, which, as well as the former, he began and finished without the least information of assistance from any person, or other books than those I have mentioned; so that whatever merit is attached to his present performance, is exclusively and peculiarly his own. I have been the more careful to investigate those particulars, and to ascertain their reality, as they form an interesting fact in the History of Man; and as you may want them to gratify curiosity, I have no objection to your selecting them for your account of Benjamin."
^Huber, Alexander (ed.). "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard". Thomas Gray Archive. Oxford, Oxfordshire, England: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014. Retrieved February 12, 2018. Lines 53–56: "Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
^Huber, Alexander (ed.). "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard". Thomas Gray Archive. Oxford, Oxfordshire, England: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014. Retrieved February 12, 2018. Lines 37–40: "Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault, If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise, Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault The pealing anthem swells the note of praise."
^Bedini, 1999, pp. 184–187. "Banneker's almanac went on sale at the end of 1791 and immediately sold in great numbers. Large inventories were furnished by Goddard to three other distributors, and it was not long before the first printing was exhausted, requiring Goddard and Angell to produce a second printing. ...." (2) Bedini, 1999, p. 191 "Banneker's almanac for 1793 was one of the most important publications of its time. It was distributed in great numbers and became the subject of widespread discussion at all levels." (3) Bedini, 1999, pp. 195–197. "The almanacs for 1795 enjoyed a substantially increased circulation. .... The total of at least nine known editions of Banneker's almanac for the same year was remarkable, and brought the amateur astronomer not only considerable renown, but a substantial income as well."
^Bedini, 1999, pp. 195–197. "The almanacs for 1795 enjoyed a substantially increased circulation. .... The total of at least nine known editions of Banneker's almanac for the same year was remarkable, ....".
^(1) Tise, 1998, p. 215. "The 1795 edition saw three separate versions (of Banneker's almanac) published in Baltimore alone; a Wilmington publisher produced five editions for various distributors; and three Philadelphia printers offered editions, as did another in Trenton, New Jersey."
^(1) Mason, pp. 244–246. "An Address to Benjamin Banneker, an African Astronomer, who presented the author with a manuscript Almanack." (2) Perot, full text, pp. 53–54, 138.
^(1) Latrobe, p. 12. (2) Barber, Janet E.; Nkwanta, Asamoah (2014). "Benjamin Banneker's Original Handwritten Document: Observations and Study of the Cicada". Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. 4 (1): 112–122. doi:10.5642/jhummath.201401.07. ISSN2159-8118. OCLC700943261. Archived from the original on August 27, 2014. Retrieved August 26, 2014. Page 115, Fig. 3: Image of page in Benjamin Banneker's Astronomical Journal, 1791–1806. Manuscript written by Benjamin Banneker (MS 2700). Special Collection. Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland: "I like to forget that I inform to report that if their lives are Short they are merry, they begin to Sing or make a noise from first they come out of the Earth till they die. The hindermost part rots off, and it does not appear to be any pain to them, for they still continue on Singing till they die.".
^(1) Allaben, pp. 67–68. "..., but that having taken up my pen in order to direct to you as a present a copy of my Almanac which I have calculated for the Succeeding year, ..... and altho I had almost declined to make my calculation for the ensuing year, in consequence of that time which I had allotted therefor being taking up at the Federal Territory by the request of Mr. Andrew Ellicott, yet finding my Self underal several engagements to printers of this State to whom I have communicated my design, on my return to my place of residence, I industrially applied my Self thereto, ...." (2) Banneker, 1792b, pp. 9–10. "And altho I had almost declined to make my calculation for the ensuing year, in consequence of that time which I had allotted therefor being taking up at the Federal Territory by the request of Mr. Andrew Ellicott, ....".
^(1) Bedini, 1999, pp. 241–251. (2) Clark, James W., Maryland Commission on Afro-American and Indian History and Culture, Annapolis, Maryland (June 14, 1976). "Benjamin Banneker Homesite"(PDF). Maryland State Historical Trust: Inventory Form for State Historic Sites Survey. Annapolis, Maryland: Maryland State Archives. p. 16. Archived(PDF) from the original on August 18, 2015. Retrieved November 15, 2015.((cite web)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^(1) "Almanac"(15 digitized images). In Pursuit of a Vision: Two Centuries of Collecting at the American Antiquarian Society. Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society (www.americanantiquarian.org). 2012. Archived from the original on August 15, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2020. Benjamin Banneker. Holographic manuscript of his 1792 almanac and ephemeris, with the published edition: Benjamin Banneker's Almanack. Baltimore: William Goddard and James Angell …, both 1791. Manuscript: Gift of William Goddard, 1813. Published almanac: Gift of Samuel L. Munson, 1925. Note: This web page contains links to three digitized images of pages in the manuscript for the almanac and to 12 digitized images of printed pages of the published almanac. (2) Banneker, Benjamin. Images(19 digitized images). Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society (www.americanantiquarian.org). OCLC950911530. Archived from the original on April 26, 2020. Retrieved April 26, 2020. ((cite book)): |work= ignored (help) Note: This manuscript, attributed to Banneker by Baltimore printer William Goddard (1740–1817), was printed as Banneker's Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris for the Year of Our Lord 1792, Baltimore: Printed and Sold, Wholesale and Retail, by William Goddard and James Angell, at their
Printing-Office, in Market Street. The web page contains 19 links to digitized images of handwritten editorial notes describing the provenance of the manuscript, sequential digitized images of each page in the manuscript, and additional digitized images of pages in the manuscript. (3) Bedini, 1999, p. 181 "First page of manuscript original, with calculations for the month of January 1792 for his first almanac. From the manuscript of his ephemeris for 1792 that he had submitted to Goddard & Angell in 1791. Found among the papers of William Goddard. American Antiquarian Society."
^(1) "Kaplan"(1 digitized image). 1989. pp. 140–141. (2) "I. Correspondence, 1705–1826". Collection Guides: Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts. Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Historical Society. October 2016. Archived from the original on November 26, 2019. Retrieved March 1, 2020. Volumes 8–12 (1790–1793) contain papers covering Jefferson's service as secretary of state, including letters from Jefferson to his daughters at Monticello and many promissory notes demonstrating the degree of his indebtedness. (3) Bedini, 1999, p. 378. "17. Banneker to Thomas Jefferson, August 19, 1791, 7S. I. 38–43, Jefferson-Coolidge Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society."
^Banneker, Benjamin (August 19, 1791). "To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Banneker, 19 August 1791". Founders Online: Thomas Jefferson. National Historical Publications & Records Commission: National Archives. Archived from the original on August 31, 2019. Retrieved August 31, 2019. Footnote: RC (MHi); at head of text: "Thomas Jefferson Secretary of State"; endorsed by TJ as received 26 Aug. 1791 and so recorded in SJL." (Abbreviations: "MHi": "Massachusetts Historical Society"; "RC": Recipient's Copy"; "SJL": "Jefferson's "Summary Journal of Letters" written and received"; "TJ": "Thomas Jefferson"). (Original source: Cullen, Charles T., ed. (1986). The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 22: 6 August 1791 – 31 December 1791. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 52. ISBN9780691184654. LCCN50007486. OCLC1043555596. Retrieved August 31, 2019. Footnote: RC (MHi); at head of text: "Thomas Jefferson Secretary of State"; endorsed by TJ as received 26 Aug. 1791 and so recorded in SJL.)
^Bedini, 1999, p. 378. "18. Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Banneker, August 30, 1791, .... Jefferson's file copy is in the Thomas Jefferson Papers f. 11481, Library of Congress."
^(1) "Polygraphs". Antique Copying Machines. Early Office Museum (www.officemuseum.com). 2016. Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2020. Hawkins & Peale patented a polygraph in the US in 1803, and beginning in 1804 Thomas Jefferson collaborated with them in working on improvements in the machine. Jefferson used a polygraph for the rest of his life. (Reference: Bedini, Silvio A., Thomas Jefferson and His Copying Machines, University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1984.) (2) Thomas Jefferson. "Polygraph". Charlottesville, Virginia: Th: Jefferson's Monticello. Archived from the original on July 27, 2019. Retrieved May 10, 2020. Historical Notes: Marked "Hawkins & Peale's Patent Polygraph No. 57," this machine was used by Jefferson from 1806 until his death. Jefferson first acquired the letter-copying device he called "the finest invention of the present age" in March of 1804. Invented and named by Englishman John Isaac Hawkins, the polygraph used the principles of the pantograph, a draftsman's tool for reducing and enlarging drawings. The writer's hand moves one pen whose action is duplicated by the second one, producing a copy strikingly like the original. Before he returned to England in 1803, Hawkins assigned his American patent rights to Charles Willson Peale, who developed and marketed the invention. Jefferson was one of his most eager clients, purchasing one for the President's House and one for Monticello. He soon exchanged these machines for new ones, as Peale continued to perfect the design — often according to Jefferson's suggestions. By 1809 Jefferson wrote that "the use of the polygraph has spoiled me for the old copying press the copies of which are hardly ever legible . . . . I could not, now therefore, live without the Polygraph." (3) Jefferson, Thomas (January 15, 1809). "Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, January 15, 1809"(1 digitized image). The Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress: Manuscript/Mixed Material. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. Retrieved May 12, 2020. (4) Jefferson, Thomas (January 15, 1809). "From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 January 1809". Founders Online. National Archives. Archived from the original on April 13, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2020. the use of the polygraph has spoiled me for the old copying press the copies of which are hardly ever legible, ... I could not, now therefore, live without the Polygraph. .... (5) Miller, Lillian B., ed. (1983). From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 January 1809. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press for the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. pp. 1168–1169. ISBN978-0300034226. OCLC557596227. Retrieved May 12, 2020 – via Google Books. ((cite book)): |work= ignored (help)
^(1) Maryland Historical Society Library Department (February 6, 2014). "The Dreams of Benjamin Banneker". H. Furlong Baldwin Library: Underbelly. Baltimore, Maryland: Maryland Historical Society. Archived from the original on September 17, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2020. The astronomical journal is the only remaining artifact written in Banneker's hand, as his cabin and most of his belongings burned down in a fire as his body was being laid in the ground in 1806. On his instruction, the astronomical journal and some other loose manuscripts were removed upon his death and left to George Ellicott (1760–1832). The journal stayed in the hands of the Ellicott family until 1844 when it was deposited here at MdHS, where it was used by John H.B. Latrobe the following year. Quaker philanthropist and MdHS member Moses Sheppard (1771–1857) had the book rebound in Russian leather in 1852, and at this date most likely combined the astronomical journal with some of Banneker's loose manuscripts as well as a day book. At some unknown date the astronomical journal left MdHS and returned to the hands of the Ellicott family. It stayed there, away from the public's eye until 1987 when Ellicott family descendant Dorothea West Fitzhugh donated it in honor of her late husband Robert Tyson Fitzhugh. In 1999 MdHS sent the journal to the Center for Conservation in Philadelphia where it was rebound, deacidified, and given full conservation treatment. (2) "Banneker Astronomical Journal, 1781; 1790–1802; 1806". H. Furlong Baldwin Library. Baltimore, Maryland: Maryland Historical Society. February 2020. Archived from the original on March 2, 2020. Retrieved March 2, 2020 – via EOS.Web® Enterprise, OPAC Discovery: Sirsi Corporation. (3) Tyson, pp. 2, 18.
^(1) Respers, Lisa (August 1, 1996). "18th-century Banneker items to be auctioned: Museum organizers hope to buy rare artifacts". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on December 26, 2017. Retrieved December 26, 2017. A selection of rare items used by Benjamin Banneker, noted black American scientist, is to be auctioned early next month, but organizers of the planned Banneker museum and park in Baltimore County hope to raise money to buy the artifacts first. The items – which include a William and Mary drop-leaf table, candlesticks and molds, and several documents – are scheduled to be put on the block at Sloane's Auction House in Bethesda. Jean Walsh, a member of the Friends of Benjamin Banneker Historical Park, said the items had been in the possession of a descendant of George Ellicott, who at age 17 befriended the much older Banneker – known as "the first black man of science." "George was interested in astronomy, and he loaned a number of things to Banneker, including the table and several books," Walsh said.... Groundbreaking is planned for September for the long-awaited Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum in Oella, and Walsh and other supporters would like to exhibit the items there. Gwen Marable, president of the organization, said an attempt had been made to persuade the owner, Elizabeth Wilde of Indianapolis, to donate or sell some of the artifacts to the museum. "We want to spearhead an effort to keep these things here in Maryland," said Marable, a descendant of one of Banneker's three sisters. Samuel Hopkins – a descendant of the Ellicott family, who were mill owners and co-founders of Ellicott City – said he encouraged Wilde to turn the artifacts over to the museum. "I spoke to her some time ago and told her I thought it would be fine if she gave some of the stuff to the museum," Hopkins said. "I suggested to her that, if she did not give it to the society, that she might let the society make copies of the documents for display." Patrick O'Neill, who is helping to arrange the auction for Sloane's, said the items are being appraised. Appraisal of historic pieces can be difficult, though officials expect the table to sell for $10,000 to $30,000. .... According to Silvio A. Bedini, author of The Life of Benjamin Banneker, the scientist instructed his nephews to return the table and books to the Ellicott family and give them some of his effects. The day of his funeral in 1806, Banneker's log cabin burned to the ground. It is on that site where the museum and park are to be built. Bedini said the artifacts are especially valuable because they are among the few remaining privately owned Banneker items.. (2) Saulny, Susan (August 16, 1996). "Banneker Kin Decry Auctioning Of His Artifacts". Politics. The Washington Post. Retrieved October 19, 2020. (3) "The Banneker Artifacts". Opinion. The Washington Post. August 22, 1996. Retrieved October 19, 2020. (4) McNatt, Glenn (August 25, 1996). "Banneker items close to being auctioned". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on December 26, 2017. Retrieved December 26, 2017. Elizabeth Wilde, the Ellicott family member who inherited the Banneker-related items, plans to sell more than 20 Banneker artifacts and documents next month through C. G. Sloan auction house in Bethesda. Wilde, who lives in Indianapolis, has rebuffed appeals from Banneker historians, relatives and admirers to donate the artifacts to the new Banneker museum or give the sponsoring group more time to raise money so it can buy the items itself. (5) Respers, Lisa (August 29, 1996). "$50,000 donated to Banneker museum 'Friends' hope to keep rare artifacts in Md". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on December 26, 2017. Retrieved December 26, 2017. (6) "For sale: Benjamin Banneker's legacy: Artifacts on the block: Business leaders should help bring rare items home". The Baltimore Sun. September 4, 1996. Archived from the original on December 2, 2014. Retrieved March 31, 2015. (7) Levine, Susan (January 4, 1997). "A Banneker Plan". Local. The Washington Post. Retrieved October 10, 2020. The items, including a drop-leaf table, candlestick and candle mold, maps, letters and diaries, .... .
^(1) Respers, Lisa (September 9, 1996). "Coveted Banneker items going, going . . . gone: Dismayed local group outbid by Va. banker". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on December 26, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017. Emanuel Friedman, an investment banker and chairman of Friedman, Billings and Ramsey in Rosslyn, Va., made winning bids of $32,500 for the table, $7,500 for letters, a scrapbook and personal papers from the Ellicott estate, $6,000 for the candlesticks, and $3,750 for the ledger. .... Friedman said he planned to keep some for a personal collection and donate the rest to a new African-American Civil War Foundation museum being planned in Washington, which he believed would be willing to share the artifacts with the Banneker museum. .... Richard B. Hughes, chief of the Maryland Office of Archaeology, said the consortium still wants to buy other artifacts such as a book containing Banneker's scientific notations that Elizabeth Wilde – an Ellicott descendant who owned the artifacts – did not include in yesterday's auction. "Because of the involvement of public money, we had to set limits on what we could spend based on the advice we received from appraisers," Hughes said of the consortium, which put in winning bids only on two books with accompanying manuscripts – for $75 – on the settlement of Ellicott Mills and the history of the mills. (2) Jeter, Jon (September 9, 1996). "A Mystery Bidder Buys The Show At Banneker Auction". Local. The Washington Post. Retrieved October 19, 2020. The stranger with the deep pockets was Emanuel Freedman, and, when the auction was over, he had dropped a cool $85,000 on the collection of artifacts. He single-handedly thwarted the museum supporters' efforts to round up the prized pieces. In the end, the contingent of supporters had managed to buy only a handwritten ledger once owned by Banneker, who helped to chart the boundaries of the area that would become the District of Columbia. (3) Respers, Lisa (September 23, 1996). "Banneker artifacts sought on loan: Oella museum backers want to borrow items bought by D.C. banker". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on December 26, 2017. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
^(1) Levine, Susan (January 4, 1997). "A Banneker Plan". Local. The Washington Post. Retrieved October 19, 2020. More than 190 years after his death, some prized possessions of renowned black scientist Benjamin Banneker soon will be coming home. The collection, which Banneker historians, relatives and admirers once feared would be dispersed forever when it was auctioned in Sep 1996, will be sent to two Maryland museums that bear his name. (2) Respers, Lisa (January 4, 1997). "Museum to display Banneker artifacts: Owner will allow objects to be shown for 20 years". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on April 1, 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2015. A happy ending is in sight for the planned Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum in Oella, outbid at auction last fall for valuable artifacts once owned by the noted African-American astronomer and inventor. Next week, the Virginia-based investment banker who paid $85,000 for a table, candlesticks, documents and other items is expected to sign an agreement allowing the museum to display the artifacts for 20 years. .... Items auctioned in Bethesda in September came from a descendant of the Ellicotts, a white family that forged a strong friendship with the scientist, who died in 1806. Among them: a maple and pine drop-leaf table believed to have been lent to Banneker by the Ellicott family, two candlesticks and a candle mold, a ledger from the Ellicott & Co. general store noting purchases by Banneker, and several documents and letters pertaining to Banneker and the Ellicotts. ..... Friedman, a history buff, donated the artifacts to a Civil War monument and visitors center being built by his friend Frank Smith Jr., a Washington councilman. He said the entire collection, which includes other items of Banneker's period that did not relate to him, will be part of a Black History exhibit at The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. They will then be turned over to the Banneker-Douglas Museum in Annapolis, until construction of the Oella museum is completed. (3) "Benjamin Banneker 1731–1806: His Life and Place: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.: February 8 — March 30, 1997". Washington, D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of Art. February 8, 1997. p. 28. Retrieved November 15, 2020 – via Internet Archive. This exhibition and related materials is made possible by a generous grant from Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc. (4) "Banneker dream a reality Oella: Artifacts of the 'first black man of science' on display in new museum and park". The Baltimore Sun. July 2, 1998. Archived from the original on April 1, 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2015. The artifacts donated by Mr. Friedman, including a William and Mary drop-leaf table, candlesticks and documents, will be brought to the museum next year.
^ abShipler, David K. (1998). "The Myths of America". A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 196–197. ISBN0679734546. LCCN97002810. OCLC39849003 – via Google Books. The Banneker story, impressive as it was, got embellished in 1987, when the public school system in Portland, Oregon, published African-American Baseline Essays, a thick stack of loose-leaf background papers for teachers, commissioned to encourage black history instruction. They have been used in Detroit, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Newark, and scattered schools elsewhere, although they have been attacked for gross inaccuracy in an entire literature of detailed criticism by respected historians. ....
^(1) Bedini, 1969, p. 7. "The name of Benjamin Banneker, the Afro-American self-taught mathematician and almanac-maker, occurs again and again in the several published accounts of the survey of Washington City [D.C.] begun in 1791, but with conflicting reports of the role which he played. Writers have implied a wide range of involvement, from the keeper of horses or supervisor of the woodcutters, to the full responsibility of not only the survey of the ten-mile square but the design of the city as well. None of these accounts has described the contribution which Banneker actually made." (2) Bedini, 1972, p. 126. "Benjamin Banneker's name does not appear on any of the contemporary documents or records relating to the selection, planning, and survey of the City of Washington. An exhaustive search of the files under Public Buildings and Grounds in the U.S. National Archives and of the several collections in the Library of Congress have proved fruitless. A careful perusal of all known surviving correspondence and papers of Andrew Ellicott and of Pierre Charles L'Enfant has likewise failed to reveal mention of Banneker. This conclusively dispels the legend that after L'Enfant's dismissal and his refusal to make available his plan of the city, Ellicott was able to reconstruct it in detail from Banneker's recollection. Equally untrue are legends that Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State invited Banneker to luncheon at the White House. Jefferson during this period was in Philadelphia, the national capital had not yet been built, and there was no White House.” (3) Bedini, 1972, p. 403, Item 85 "William Loren Katz. Eyewitness, the Negro in American History. New York. Putnam Publishing Corp., 1967 pp. 19–31, 61–62. Brief account of Banneker's career and contributions, which are stated to have been in "the fields of science, mathematics, and political affairs," .... . Among the misstatements are the claims ..... that George Ellicott worked with Banneker in the survey of Washington, that Banneker was appointed to the Commission at a suggestion made by Jefferson to Washington, and that Banneker selected the sites of the principal buildings. The fiction that Banneker re-created L'Enfant's plan from memory is again presented, and his almanacs are said to have been published for a period of ten years." (4) Toscano, 2000.Archived September 12, 2019, at the Wayback Machine "Some writers, in an effort to build up their hero, claim that Banneker was the designer of Washington. Other writers have asserted that Banneker's role in the survey is a myth without documentation. Neither group is correct. Bedini does a professional job of sorting out the truth from the falsehoods." (5) Martel, Erich (February 20, 1994). "The Egyptian Illusion". Opinions. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2018. Teachers who want reliable information on African American history often don't know where to turn. Many have unfortunately looked to unreliable books and publications by Afrocentric writers. The African American Baseline Essays, developed by the public school system in Portland, Ore., are the most widespread Afrocentric teaching material. Educators should be aware of their crippling flaws. .... "Thomas Jefferson appointed Benjamin Banneker to survey the site for the capital, Washington, D.C.; ...." according to the essay on African American scientists. Had the author consulted "The Life of Benjamin Banneker" by Silvio Bedini, considered the definitive biography, he would have discovered no evidence for these claims. Jefferson appointed Andrew Ellicott to conduct the survey; Ellicott made Banneker his assistant for three months in 1791. (6) Bedini, 1999, p. 132-136. "An exhaustive search of government repositories, including the Public Buildings and Grounds files in the National Archives, and various collections in the Library of Congress, failed to turn up Banneker's name on any of the contemporary documents or records related to the selection, planning and survey of the City of Washington. Nor was he mentioned in any of the surviving correspondence and papers of Andrew Ellicott and of Pierre Charles L'Enfant. .... Although the exact date of Banneker's departure from the survey is not specified in Ellicott's report of expenditures, it occurred sometime late in the month of April 1791, following the arrival of one of Ellicott's brothers. It was not until some ten months after Banneker's departure from the scene that L'Enfant was dismissed, by means of a letter from Jefferson dated February 27, 1792. This conclusively dispels any basis for the legend that after L'Enfant's dismissal and his refusal to make available his plan of the city, Banneker recollected the plan in detail from which Ellicott was able to reconstruct it. Equally untrue and in fact impossible is the legend that Thomas Jefferson as secretary of state invited Banneker to luncheon at the White House. Jefferson during this period was in Philadelphia, the national capital in Washington had yet not been built, and there was no White House." (7) Cerami, 2002, pp. 142–143. (8) Levine, Michael (November 10, 2003). "L'Enfant designed more than D.C.: He designed a 200-year-old controversy". History: Planning Our Capital City: Get to know the District of Columbia. DCpages.com. Archived from the original on December 6, 2003. Retrieved December 31, 2016. (9) Weatherly, Myra (2006). "An Important Task". Benjamin Banneker: American Scientific Pioneer. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Compass Point Books. pp. 76–77. ISBN0756515793. LCCN2005028708. OCLC61864300. Retrieved August 27, 2019 – via Google Books. The conflicts surrounding L'Enfant gave rise to an often—repeated story that involved Banneker. According to the story, Banneker, having seen the original design for the city only once, re-created it in detail after L'Enfant returned to France with the original plans. This legend has led some people to credit Banneker with a greater role in creating the capital city. However, there is no evidence that Banneker contributed anything to the design of the city or that he ever met L'Enfant. Modern historians acknowledge that the inaccurate information—the myths surrounding Banneker—resulted in his contributions to the city being overvalued. Unfortunately, those myths sometimes obscure Banneker's greatest contribution to society—the almanacs that he would publish in his later years.. (10) Bigbytes. "Benjamin Banneker Stories". dcsymbols dot com. Archived from the original on December 8, 2010. Retrieved January 1, 2017. (11) Keene, Louis. "Benjamin Banneker: The Black Tobacco Farmer Who The Presidents Couldn't Ignore". The White House Historical Association. Archived from the original on August 31, 2019. Retrieved February 25, 2020. Perhaps owing to the scarcity of recorded fact about his remarkable life, and because he was often invoked symbolically to advance social causes like abolition, Banneker's story has been susceptible to mythmaking. He has been incorrectly credited with drawing the street grid of Washington, D.C., ....
^(1) Whiteman, Maxwell (1969). BENJAMIN BANNEKER: Surveyor and Astronomer: 1731–1806: A biographical noteInWhiteman, Maxwell (ed.) "The plan for a "Peace Office" in the Government of the United States, which also appeared in this issue (Banneker's 1793 Philadelphia almanac) has been attributed to Banneker. According to Edwin Wolf 2nd, Librarian of the Library Company of Philadelphia from whose institution these copies have been made, the "Peace Office" is the work of Dr. Benjamin Rush." (2) Bedini, 1972, p. 186. "Another important item in the 1793 almanac was "A Plan Of a Peace-Office for the United States," which aroused a good deal of comment at the time. It was believed by many to have been Banneker's own work. Even within recent decades its authorship has been debated. In 1947 it was identified without question as the work of Dr. Benjamin Rush, in a volume of his writings that appeared in that year." (3) Bedini, 1972, p. 403, Item 85 "William Loren Katz. Eyewitness, the Negro in American History. New York. Putnam Publishing Corp., 1967 pp. 19–31, 61–62. Brief account of Banneker's career and contributions, which are stated to have been in "the fields of science, mathematics, and political affairs, .... ." Among the misstatements are the claims that Banneker produced the first clock made entirely with American parts, .... ." (4) Martel, Erich (February 20, 1994). "The Egyptian Illusion". Opinions. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2018. .... "Banneker "wrote a proposal for the establishment of a United States Department of Peace," according to the essay on African American scientists. Had the author consulted "The Life of Benjamin Banneker" by Silvio Bedini, considered the definitive biography, he would have discovered no evidence for these claims. .... Benjamin Rush authored the Department of Peace proposal; the confusion arose among earlier biographers because the proposal appeared in Banneker's 1793 almanac. (5) Bedini, 1999, p. 43. "Banneker's clock was by no means the first timepiece in tidewater Maryland, as occasionally has erroneously been claimed. Timepieces were well known and available from the very earliest English settlements, ...." (6) Keene, Louis. "Benjamin Banneker: The Black Tobacco Farmer Who The Presidents Couldn't Ignore". The White House Historical Association. Archived from the original on August 31, 2019. Retrieved February 25, 2020. Perhaps owing to the scarcity of recorded fact about his remarkable life, and because he was often invoked symbolically to advance social causes like abolition, Banneker's story has been susceptible to mythmaking. He has been incorrectly credited with ......, making the first clock on the Eastern seaboard, being the first professional astronomer in America, and discovering the seventeen-year birth cycle of cicadas.
^Dove, Rita (1983). "Banneker". Poems & Poets. Poetry Foundation. Archived from the original on February 20, 2018. Retrieved February 20, 2018. (2) Newton, Amanda (March 4, 2012). "Analysis on "Banneker" and "Parsley"". Spotlight on Rita Dove. Blogger. Archived from the original on February 20, 2018. Retrieved February 20, 2018. (3) "Comprehensive Biography of Rita Dove". The Rita Dove Home Page. University of Virginia. Archived from the original on February 20, 2018. Retrieved February 20, 2018. In 1993 Rita Dove was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, making her the youngest person — and the first African-American — to receive this highest official honor in American poetry. She held the position for two years. .... Ms. Dove taught creative writing at Arizona State University from 1981 to 1989; subsequently she joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where, since 1993, she holds the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English.
Glawe, Eddie (February 13, 2014). "Feature: Benjamin Banneker". Professional Surveyor Magazine. Flatdog Media, Inc. 39 (6). Archived from the original on January 30, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2018 – via xyHt.
Johnson, Richard (January 18, 2018). "Banneker, Benjamin (1731–1806)". Black Past. BlackPast.org. Archived from the original on June 10, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
Perot, Sandra (January 2008). Introduction and abstract. Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 (Thesis). Archived from the original on September 29, 2015. Retrieved November 15, 2015 – via ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst.
Full text (Thesis). Archived from the original on October 1, 2015. Retrieved March 1, 2018 – via ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst.
Resource guide linking to digital files and further resources about Banneker, from the Library of Congress
Bragg, George F. Jr. (1914). "Benjamin Banneker". Men of Maryland. Church Advocate Press, Baltimore, Maryland. pp. 29–34. OCLC4346580. Retrieved February 1, 2010 – via Internet Archive.
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