Benjamin Banneker

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Benjamin Banneker : biography

09 November 1731 – 09 October 1806

Death

Banneker never married. Because of declining sales, his last almanac was published in 1797. After selling much of his farm to the Ellicotts and others, he died in his log cabin nine years later on October 9, 1806, exactly one month before his 75th birthday. His chronic alcoholism, which worsened as he aged, may have contributed to his death.Bedini 1999, pp. 253–254 A commemorative obelisk that the Maryland Bicentennial Commission and the State Commission on Afro American History and Culture erected in 1977 near his unmarked grave stands in the yard of the Mt. Gilboa African Methodist Episcopal Church in Oella, Maryland.(1) in website of . Retrieved 2008-08-27.(2) (3) Coordinates of Benjamim Banneker obelisk:

Notable works

In 1753 at the age of 22, Banneker completed a wooden clock that struck on the hour. He appears to have modeled his clock from a borrowed pocket watch by carving each piece to scale. The clock continued to work until Banneker’s death.Bedini 1999, p. 42

After his father died in 1759, Banneker lived with his mother and sisters. In 1771, the Ellicott family moved to the area and built mills along the Patapsco River. Banneker supplied their workers with food and studied the mills. The Ellicotts were Quakers and shared the same views on racial equality as did many of their faith. George Ellicott lent Benjamin Banneker books and equipment to begin a more formal study of astronomy in 1788. The following year, Banneker sent George his work calculating a solar eclipse.

In February 1791, Major Andrew Ellicott, a member of the same family, hired Banneker to assist in the initial survey of the boundaries of the new federal district, which the 1790 federal Residence Act and later legislation authorized. Formed from land along the Potomac River that the states of Maryland and Virginia ceded to the federal government of the United States in accordance with the Residence Act, the territory that became the original District of Columbia was a square measuring on each side, totaling .(1) Bedini 1999, p. 113.(2) (3) Ellicott’s team placed boundary stones at every mile point along the borders of the new capital territory.

Banneker’s duties on the survey consisted primarily of making astronomical observations at Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia, to ascertain the location of the starting point for the survey.Bedini 1999, pp. 118–121 He also maintained a clock that he used to relate points on the ground to the positions of stars at specific times. However, at age 59, Banneker left the boundary survey in April 1791 due to illness and difficulties completing the survey.Bedini 1999, p. 136. He returned to his home at Ellicott’s Mills to work on an ephemeris. Andrew Ellicott continued the survey with his brothers Benjamin and Joseph Ellicott and other assistants through 1791 and 1792.Bedini 1999, pp. 132–136 At Ellicott’s Mills, Banneker made astronomical calculations that predicted solar and lunar eclipses for inclusion in his ephemeris. He placed the ephemeris and its subsequent revisions in a number of editions in a six-year series of almanacs which were printed and sold in six cities in four states for the years 1792 through 1797: Baltimore; Philadelphia; Wilmington, Delaware; Alexandria, Virginia; Petersburg, Virginia; and Richmond, Virginia.Title page of (1) Title page of almanac in (2) List of 18 editions of Benjamin Banneker’s almanacs for the years 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796 and 1797 available online from NewsBank. Accessed by author search using search term "Banneker, Benjamin" in (3) Title page of Image from .(4) Title page of Image from He also kept a series of journals that contained his notebooks for astronomical observations and his diary. The notebooks additionally contained a number of mathematical calculations and puzzles.(1) (2) (3) Bedini 1999, pp. 340–343

The title page of an edition of Banneker’s 1792 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris stated that the publication contained: