Benjamin Banneker Essay

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Mathematics is the study of topics such as quantity (numbers), structure, space, and change. There are those who go to such lengths to converge and study the concept of mathematics, these people are known as mathematicians. One of these notable mathematicians is a Black American man by the name of Benjamin Banneker. He was known for being an Astrologer, a self-taught mathematician, and a compiler of almanacs and writer. Benjamin was born on November 9, 1731 in Baltimore County, Maryland to two freed slaves his mother Mary and his father Robert. Growing up Banneker lived on a farm in Patapsco Valley in the rural area of Baltimore County majority of his life and was named at the age of six on the deed of his family’s 100-acre farm. As an adolescent, Banneker met and befriended a Quaker (members of a historically Christian group of religious movements) named Peter Heinrichs who established a school nearby the Banneker farm. Heinrichs shared his personal library with Banneker and also supplied him with personal instruction. Banneker’s education ended when he grew old enough to help on his family farm. At the age of 22, Banneker …show more content…

He placed the ephemeris and its subsequent revisions in a number of editions in a six-year series of almanac which were printed and sold in six cities in four states for the years 1791 to 1802. On August 19, 1791, Banneker sent a copy of his first almanac to Thomas Jefferson (who was currently Secretary of State). In an letter, he questioned the slave owner’s honesty as a “friend of liberty”. He urged Jefferson to assist in ridding “absurd and fabricated ideas” that one race surpasses the other. He hoped that Jefferson would agree with his views to be the same as his, that "God” gave us all the same perceptions and abled us all with the same capacities." Jefferson answered with praise for Banneker's

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