Benjamin Banneker

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Benjamin Banneker (born November 9, 1731 in Baltimore County , Province of Maryland , † October 25, 1806 ibid ) was a mathematician , astronomer and abolitionist . He is considered the first African American scientist .

Banneker on his almanac published in 1795

Life

Banneker was born as a free citizen under the name Benjamin Bannaky, because his parents (his mother by birth, his father had bought himself free) were also free. His grandmother, from England to arise was the alleged theft of forced labor as a Debtor convicted in Maryland. After the seven-year contract expired, she bought a tobacco farm and later married one of her two slaves , an African . Banneker grew up on this farm and attended a Quaker school for a few winters , but his knowledge and skills came primarily from his grandmother, and he taught a lot himself. He showed a mathematical and mechanical talent early on .

In 1753 Banneker developed one of the first pocket watches made entirely of American material , which made him famous in the region. It was not until 1788 that he began to deal with astronomy . He got the books and instruments he needed from George Ellicott, a brother of the mayor of his native city. In 1789, in contrast to well-known astronomers, he predicted a solar eclipse almost exactly . Two years later he took with Mayor Andrew Ellicott , the surveying of the future Federal District Washington, DC before. However , he had no part in the design of Washington based on plans by Pierre Charles L'Enfant .

Between 1792 and 1797, Banneker published an annual almanac that contained astronomical ephemeris , but also political, humanitarian and abolitionist texts. An institution comparable to the United States Institute of Peace founded in 1984 (“ an office for promoting and perserving perpetual peace ”) was already called for by him at that time. He sent a manuscript of the first almanac to the later President Thomas Jefferson and in a letter criticized his views of a black race intellectually inferior to the whites and the contradiction between the freedom guaranteed to all in the constitution and ongoing slavery . He compared the situation of blacks to that of the United States under the "tyranny of the British Crown" before the War of Independence . In his reply, Jefferson was enthusiastic about Banneker's work, which he had sent to Marquis de Condorcet , secretary of the Académie des Sciences in Paris. He sees the almanac as further evidence of a possible equivalence of the talents of blacks, whose expression would be hampered by the "reduced conditions of their existence in Africa & America". In a letter written in 1809, however, he only certified Banneker as having "ordinary" intelligence based on his letter to him.

In his last years he published treatises on bees and the locust cycle, among other things . Benjamin Banneker died at the age of 74 at the home of his farm that was sold to the Ellicott family. On the day of the funeral, it burned down along with almost all of Banneker's notes (and the pocket watch, which was still running).

Appreciation

  • Several schools in the USA as well as the "Banneker- Douglass Museum" in Annapolis (Maryland) are named after Benjamin Banneker.
  • Today's Benjamin Banneker Park and Memorial was built in 1970 on the " L'Enfant Plaza " in Washington DC in the middle of a roundabout also named after him . A statue of Banneker over four meters high is to be built in or next to the park .
  • A Benjamin Banneker Historical Park & ​​Museum was opened in 1998 on the former property of the family's farm near Baltimore .
  • The United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp with his image in 1980 .
  • Banneker Watches , founded in 2005, has set itself the goal of making the name Banneker and its achievement as the first American watch developer common. In his honor, precious wood is built into all of the company's watches .
  • Stevie Wonder paid tribute to him in 1976 with his song "Black Man" on the album Songs in the Key of Life .

Quotes

  • " Never abandon your vision. Keep reaching to further your dreams. "
  • " The color of the skin is in no way connected with the strength of the mind or intellectual powers. "(1796)

literature

  • Charles A. Cerami, Robert M. Silverstein: Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot. John Wiley & Sons, New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-471-38752-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Black Scientists & Inventors" on infoplease.com
  2. ↑ a b Ellicott's letter on engraving the plan ( Memento from June 19, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ "L'Enfant and Washington" , updated June 17, 2001
  4. ↑ for example the "Benjamin Banneker Academic High School" in Washington DC or the "Banneker Elementary Science and Technology Magnet School" in Kansas City
  5. ^ Letter from February 15, 1980 with Banneker postage stamps
  6. ↑ Banneker Watches Ticks Off In Denver ( Memento from May 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ "Who was the man who helped design the nation's capitol, made the first clock to give time in America and wrote the first almanac?" - "Benjamin Banneker - a black man"
  8. ^ Creative Quotations from Benjamin Banneker
personal data
SURNAME Banneker, Benjamin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bannaky, Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American scientist
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1731
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore County , Maryland, USA
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1806
Place of death Baltimore County , Maryland