Benjamin Banneker

The Full Profile

Benjamin Banneker, Astronomer, Almanac Author & Surveyor, demonstrated Black scientific and mathematical achievement in the early United States and publicly challenged racial prejudice. Benjamin Banneker was a free Black mathematician, astronomer, almanac author, and surveyor. He assisted with the survey of the federal district and published almanacs containing astronomical calculations. His 1791 correspondence with Thomas Jefferson directly challenged contradictions between American liberty and racial inequality. His hand-carved wooden clock kept time for decades, and his almanacs carried his own astronomical calculations across the mid-Atlantic states; his 1791 letter to Thomas Jefferson — challenging slavery from the survey of the new capital — became an abolitionist landmark.