Described as a man of the first many in terms of his inventions and accomplishments, Benjamin Banneker was the first self-educated African-American born in 1731 in an enslaved family. Both of Benjamin Banneker parents were free people considering that his mother was a daughter of an English woman named Mary, who got married to a slave Bannka after she had freed him. Therefore, Benjamin was able to elude the cruelty that many African-Americans went through as slaves and even had the privilege of attending a Quaker school while staying with his maternal grandmother. In that, he began his education at an early age as their grandmother became their first teachers in reading and writing and the establishment of the Quaker school offered him a massive opportunity that he utilized as he excelled mathematics and science. Benjamin had a passion for reading books as most of his time was spent studying that later transformed him into a scientists, farmer, mathematician, author and an astronomer, skills that helped him accomplish and invent important items in history.
Benjamin Banneker is remembered to be the first person to have created a wooden clock at the age of twenty-two, an accomplishment that earned him a great reputation in the early 1750s. prior to the creation of the wooden clock, Benjamin had borrowed his friend a pocket watch who hailed from an affluent family, but the manner in which the watch worked struck him and gave him the urge of knowing more about the device. As a result, Benjamin separated the components of the watch and studied them after which he assembled them back together and returned the watch. After returning it, he embarked on creating a clock from well-shaped pieces of wood that turned out to be fascinating, as it would keep on ticking for many years. Due to this achievement and the reputation that he had earned in developing the wooden clock, Benjamin went on to open his own clock repair business, which marked the beginning of his many achievements in the history of America.
Banneker was also familiar with surveying, a field that he had learned by himself while reading the book “Gibson’s Treatise on Practical Surveying,” that he later deliberated on with Elliot, who had been selected to survey the borders of D.C. The district was surveying the land in search of a good place for the location of the federal city, a task that was assigned to Elliot, who decided to pick Benjamin as his aid due to his knowledge in the area as he had good understanding of celestial readings. Benjamin lived in an era where there were advanced machines to measure land and, therefore, the astronomers of that period used the parallax effect to determine distances. Thus, Benjamin was required to make cosmological observations regarding the point where the survey was to begin and to keep a clock that required in relating of the pints on the ground to the location of stars at precise times. His work was greatly noted while working with the survey team considering that he pivoted the survey of the land and designed the final layout for the construction of government buildings, avenues, and roads as illustrated on the map for the nation’s capitol. Therefore, the two individuals ended up designing the complete document that is vastly referred to as the L'Enfant Plan, which implies that the final design of the L'Enfant Plan was the product of their effort, a document that had first been worked on by L'Enfant (Weatherly 233). However, a large number of people believe that Charles produced the L’Enfant design manuscript, which is not entirely true because it was only named after him at the request of George Washington as a sign of respect for him because he was the one who availed the initial vision for the design of the nation’s capitol. Benjamin stayed with the team during a major part of the design, but he later opted to go back home at the age of fifty-nine as he felt responsible for the farm and the family land. He later went on to assert his knowledge in the field of agriculture where he became the first farmer to make use of crop rotation and unique irrigation techniques at an early age as he was a fan of desirable results as a tobacco farmer and planted his own foodstuffs. While working at the farm, Benjamin was able to design a way of tracking seventeen-year locust cycle, which marked a significant accomplishment among farmers as it made it possible for them to get ready for attacks by locusts on their farms.
Therefore, what followed was the idea of sending a manuscript copy of his first almanac to Thomas Jefferson in a letter that began with a polite apology for the freedom he showed in speaking to one of the renowned and honorable offices in the entire country. He later went to ask that a more free attitude be exercised when dealing with African-Americans as he used his accomplishments as evidence that the entrenched and absurd ideologies that generally prevailed regarding the Negros should be stopped. This clearly signified his stand as a civil right activist considering that such a bold action that he undertook to send a letter to the head office could have been costly in terms of the repercussions. The letter directly repudiated the racist idea that the whites were superior to African Americans, an assertion that was aimed at winning the mind of Jefferson because he must have heard of his attempt of trying to abolish slavery. His hope was that Jefferson would communicate with fellow whites regarding Benjamin’s idea that the blacks has an equal intellectual capacity with the whites and to persuade Jefferson not to relent in his efforts of fighting for the emancipation of African Americans as he even used his own words to get Jefferson’s attention. In that, the words of the declaration of independence that Benjamin used were supposed to demonstrate to Jefferson the contradiction that existed between the American’s values of freedom of the country and the practice exercise of slavery that was going on within its territory (Lassieur 188). Clearly, the attempts that Jefferson had made earlier to try and stop slavery showed that he was aware of the double standard that existed in the practice of slavery, but to get a Negro to raise his voice regarding the contradiction must have been shuddering. His courage did not go unrecognized as Jefferson took the initiative to respond to the issues raised by showing his gratitude and recognizing the effect that the letter and the almanac has made him see the nature had also offered the Negros talents that were equal to those of other races.
In conclusion, Benjamin Banneker is referred to as a self-educated African American who lived to outdo all the odds by becoming the first person to design a wooden clock that ticked for many years in addition to other inventions in agriculture and astronomical accomplishments. Benjamin was picked by Elliot to assist him in the survey of D.C. borders because of his vast knowledge in land survey and astronomy; hence, aiding in the design of the L'Enfant Plan. Additionally, he is recognized for predicting the pattern of the seventeen-year locusts that were destroying crops and the use of crop rotation in his far. The other important accomplishment that he is known for is the documenting of the almanac that served a special purpose to the people of that era by showing important dates. The documentation of the almanac gave him the courage to raise his voice regarding the practice of slavery in a letter to Jefferson earned him respect from most of the regions.
Works cited
Bedini, Silvio A., Richard Ralston, and Earl D. Shaw. "The Life of Benjamin Banneker." American Journal of Physics 40.11 (1972): 1711-1712. Print.
Cerami, Charles A. Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot. New York: Wiley, 2002. Print.
Lassieur, Allison. Benjamin Banneker: Astronomer and Mathematician. Mankato, Minn: Capstone Press, 2006. Print.
Weatherly, Myra. Benjamin Banneker: American Scientific Pioneer. Minneapolis, Minn: Compass Point Books, 2006. Print.
