Benjamin Banneker Fact Sheet

One of the most famous eighteenth-century Americans was of African and European descent. Benjamin Banneker was an acclaimed astronomer, mathematician, inventor, scientist, writer, and surveyor. Listed below is some information about his life.

Benjamin Banneker:

1. was born November 9, 1731 in Ellicott's Mills, Maryland.
2. had a grandmother named Molly Welsh, who was an English indentured servant.
3. had a grandfather who was originally a slave of Molly Welsh, but whom she freed and then married.
4. had a mother named Mary &— one of four children.
5. had a father who was an African native.
6. wrote a dissertation on bees.
7. designed and constructed what was probably the first wooden clock made in America.
8. attended a Quaker school in Maryland with European American and African American children.
9. farmed land ten miles outside Baltimore.
10. washed his own clothes, cooked his own meals, and cultivated gardens around his cabin.
11. was a "confirmed bachelor" who studied all night, slept all morning, and worked all afternoon.
12. wrapped himself in a great cloak at night, lay under a pear tree, and meditated on the revolutions of the heavenly bodies.
13. always had standing, in the middle of his cabin, a large table covered with books and papers.
14. played the violin.
15. was constantly in correspondence with other mathematicians in the United States, exchanging questions and seeking solutions.
16. from 1792 to 1802, wrote a series of annual almanacs that were widely read.
17. was named to the commission that surveyed the land upon which Washington, D.C., was built.
18. proposed that the cabinet have a Secretary of Peace as well as a Secretary of War.
19. worked for free public education and an end to capital punishment.
20. died on October 9, 1806, in Ellicott's Mills, Maryland.

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Excerpt from Multicultural Activities for the American History Classroom.