From progress.org
Excerpt:
Benjamin Banneker was born in Maryland on
November 9, 1731. His father and grandfather were former slaves.
A farmer of modest means, Banneker nevertheless
lived a life of unusual achievement. In 1753, the young man
borrowed a pocket watch from a well-to-do neighbor; he took it
apart and made a drawing of each component, then reassembled the
watch and returned it, fully functioning, to its owner.
From his drawings Banneker then proceeded to
carve, out of wood, enlarged replicas of each part. Calculating
the proper number of teeth for each gear and the necessary
relationships between the gears, he constructed a working wooden
clock that kept accurate time and struck the hours for over 50
years.
At age 58, Banneker began the study of astronomy
and was soon predicting future solar and lunar eclipses. He
compiled the ephemeris, or information table, for annual almanacs
that were published for the years 1792 through 1797.
"Benjamin Banneker's Almanac" was a top seller from
Pennsylvania to Virginia and even into Kentucky.
In 1791, Banneker was a technical assistant in
the calculating and first-ever surveying of the Federal District,
which is now Washington, D.C.
The "Sable Astronomer" was often
pointed to as proof that African Americans were not intellectually
inferior to European Americans. Thomas Jefferson himself noted
this in a letter to Banneker.
Banneker died on Sunday, October 9, 1806 at the
age of 74. A few small memorial traces still exist in the Ellicott
City/Oella region of Maryland, where Banneker spent his entire
life except for the Federal survey. It was not until the 1990s
that the actual site of Banneker's home, which burned on the day
of his burial, was determined.
In 1980, the U.S. Postal Service issued a
postage stamp in his honor.
Related Resources:
Dear
Benjamin Banneker 
