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If you look at photographs of famous buildings and monuments in Washington DC and then compare them to photographs of Paris, France, you may be surprised to discover just how similar the two cities are. I just recently exploited this striking resemblance when I posted a photo from the January 6th insurrection in front of the US Capital building next to a sketch showing the French Revolution unfolding in front of the Église du Dôme (ee-glees du doom) in Paris. Because the two buildings are strikingly similar and, in fact, the former was designed based on the latter, inspired by it. And that’s because Washington DC was designed by a French architect named Pierre Charles L’Enfant. But L’Enfant was actually fired by George Washington before construction on the city began. Now, his plans were still used which is why DC looks so much like Paris but, in the murky waters surrounding L’Enfant being let go, some urban legends have emerged, myths, that DC was actually designed by a Black man named Benjamin Banneker. And these myths are so pervasive, they’ve actually become part of accepted African American history and culture in the United States. But, they aren’t actually true. That’s not to say Banneker doesn’t deserve our praise and attention. He absolutely does. But let’s give it to him for what he actually accomplished not what historical telephone has incorrectly embellished. Let’s fix that.
Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix where I tell lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. This is my 100th episode! Woohoo! I wanted to do something big and exciting but then I was like, “eh, I don’t know. I got nothing.” I did reach out to y’all on Instagram though to ask you to share the most interesting thing you’ve learned from History Fix. And here are some of the things you shared. And honestly, a lot of them were not what I expected. Quite a few people recalled the Great Pyramid episode, episode 10, where I go into sort of a fringe theory, which I don’t often do, about the Great Pyramid possibly being built as a power plant. That is a favorite of many. A lot of you were digging the French Revolution episodes, 90 and 91. One person mentioned the Bone Wars episode number 67 about dueling dinosaur fossil hunters messing everything up. One person said quote “that everything is connected to Henry VIII somehow.” Right? What is with that guy? How many episodes has he been in. Like, get out of here Henry. Hazel Scott came up, episode 26, and this is before I re-mentioned her in last week’s episode so she’s still on y’alls minds too. She has a rent free permanent room in my brain. One person mentioned the Aqua Tofana episode, number 71. That one was a hit. Y’all love the idea of these wives sticking it to their abusive chauvinist husbands. People rallied behind that. My antibiotics episode came up, number 62, where I talk about how a super super commonly prescribed antibiotic has left my husband disabled and in chronic pain. Please please go listen to that if you haven't yet it may literally save your life. Cannabis and why it was banned in the US, that one was recent, number 98. And then one person said quote “Mostly how racism and xenophobia has shaped our country throughout our entire history,” end quote. Yeah. It becomes more and more apparent the more digging I do. I would add sexism to that too. The patriarchy has been an overarching theme. And not just in our country either but worldwide. So there you go, tada! That was my thing, my 100th episode celebration thing. Instagram is probably the best place to connect with me, by the way, @historyfixpodcast. If you ever want to shoot me a message, suggest an episode topic, come find me there. There is a little link in the show notes that says “shoot me a message.” I promise I read those, but unfortunately there is no way for me to respond to them. So if you’ve messaged me on there please know that I got it. And if you want a response back, hit me up on instagram instead @historyfixpodcast.
Okay, Benjamin Banneker. This guy, super interesting, but, honestly I went into this one expecting to talk about all these really remarkable things he’s known for, like designing Washington DC, and building the first working clock in the US, umm, writing the first almanac in the US, discovering the 17 year cycle of the Brood X cicada. I already had my hook all planned out right, like “you thought DC was designed by some French guy, turns out it was designed by a Black guy, let’s fix that.” But then I actually started researching and, turns out that’s not true either, so let’s fix that. Because here’s the thing, I’m not trying to take any appreciation or admiration away from Benjamin Banneker. He was an incredibly impressive person. The problem is, most of what people think they know about him is wrong. And that actually detracts from his real story which is just as impressive as the made up stories. I want Benjamin Banneker to be remembered and appreciated for what he actually did and I think it’s an injustice to him to fabricate these myths that hide his true contributions to our country.
Banneker’s whole existence was an aberration from the norm at the time. He was born in Baltimore County, Maryland in 1731. So this is colonial America, right, decades before the Revolutionary War. These are the 13 colonies. You would kind of expect that any Black person living in 1730s colonial America would be enslaved. But Banneker was actually born free. His father, Robert, was a formerly enslaved man who had been able to purchase his own freedom before marrying Banneker’s mother who was also free. And the reason she was free, was because, we’re pretty sure, her mother was white. Banneker’s mother’s name was Mary Banneky and she is believed to have been the child of a white, Irish indentured servant named Molly Welsh and an enslaved African man named Banneka. And this is actually a fairly heartwarming story. Apparently, Molly Welsh purchased Banneka to help her establish a farm just west of Baltimore, Maryland. She bought him and enslaved him to work this land. It’s been suggested that Banneka was part of the Dogon (Doe-gone) People from Mali in West Africa and many anthropologists have claimed that the Dogon people had an early understanding of astronomy. That will become important later. So Molly Welsh started out his enslaver but, at some point, she must have fallen in love with Banneka because she frees him and marries him. And I cannot stress to you how unusual this is for 1700s Maryland, a white woman marrying a Black man whom she had formerly enslaved. Molly was an Irish immigrant and she had come to the colonies as an indentured servant so she was not high and mighty herself. But still, it is a complete aberration from what is expected of people at the time. Molly and Banneka had a daughter together, Mary Banneky. Both of her parents were free and this meant that she was born free. She married Robert who had purchased his freedom and so when their son Benjamin Banneker was born in 1731, he was also born free.
His early life is not well documented. We know that in 1737, he was named at the age of 6 on the deed to his family’s 100 acre tobacco farm in the Patapsco Valley in rural Baltimore County. So, once again a complete aberration that a formerly enslaved Black man would own a 100 acre farm in 1737. According to the White House Historical Association quote “As African-American homesteaders, the family experienced not just freedom but also a quintessentially American vision of independence and economic self-determination that was rarely possible for nonwhites. Still, the color of their skin alienated them from the community of nearby farmers. Amid a rising tide of sentiment against free blacks in the colonies, Banneker’s family had to tread lightly in their own neighborhood,” end quote. We know that Banneker was educated. The White House Historical Association says his Irish grandmother, Molly Welsh, taught him to read and write at home but that he was also likely sent to a one room school house where both white and black children were taught. And this is where the Dogon people’s understanding of astronomy comes in. Banneker’s grandfather, Banneka, who was suspected of being from the Dogon people, died before he was born. But some historians theorize that he passed his knowledge of astronomy on to his wife Molly and then she may have passed it on to their grandson. Because Banneker became super interested in astronomy and this is something he would pursue more in later years when the opportunity became available.
But for now, he’s a just a kid helping his family run a 100 acre tobacco farm and attending a one room school house in rural Maryland. Living the American dream really in a way that most Black Americans at the time were not afforded. When he was 21 years old he did something quite remarkable. He took apart a pocket watch and studied the gears and the intricate inner workings and then he recreated them, larger, using wood. He hand carved larger versions of those gears and parts out of wood and he assembled it all into a wooden clock that actually worked, it kept perfect time, and it rang out on the hour. And this absolutely blew people away. There would not have been many clocks at all in rural Baltimore County at the time and so most people who came to see Banneker’s clock, because they did they like traveled to see it like an attraction, most of these people had probably never even seen a clock before. And this is, we’re talking about a Black farm boy in the 1750s at this point. That is not someone you would expect to be able to hand carve a working clock, something most of his neighbors had never even seen. It’s incredibly impressive. I couldn’t do that. Could you do that? Banneker did it. But, here’s where one of the myths, the embellishments comes into play that starts to transform him more into a fictional folk hero like Paul Bunyan than an actual real life man who did incredible things.
The myth version of the story is that Benjamin Banneker created the first clock in the American colonies, that there were no other clocks at the time and no one else was making them. False. There were several clock makers in the Americas before Banneker, not many, but several. These clockmakers had come to the colonies from England and Holland back in the 1600s. Some of the earliest known include Thomas Nash in Connecticut, 1638, William Davis in Boston, 1683, Edvardus Bogardus (what a name!) in New York City, 1698, James Batterson in Boston, 1707, and Benjamin Chandlee in 1712 who lived only 19 miles away from Banneker’s future home. Historian Silvio Bedini who wrote a biography about Banneker in the 1970s found evidence that at least 4 clockmakers were working in Annapolis, Maryland, about 25 miles from Banneker prior to the 1750s which is when he made his clock. So he did not make the first clock in America, like at all. That myth came, of course, through the game of historical telephone. And we can track the whole thing. The first mention of it, around 40 years after Banneker died, was pretty close to the truth. It comes from a memoir written by a lawyer named John Latrobe. He wrote quote “It was at this time, when [Banneker] was about thirty years of age, that he contrived and made a clock, which proved an excellent time–piece. He had seen a watch, but not a clock, such an article having not yet having found its way into the quiet and secluded valley in which he lived. The watch was therefore his model,” end quote. Not yet having found its way into the valley where he lived. Okay, that’s probably true. Not all of America, but the valley where he lived. But then 20 years later in 1863, we have this published in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine quote “Perhaps the first wonder amongst his comparatively illiterate neighbors was excited, when about the thirtieth year of his age, Benjamin made a clock. It is probable that this was the first clock of which every portion was made in America; it is certain that it was as purely as his own invention as if none had ever been made before. He had seen a watch, but never a clock, such an article not being within fifty miles of him. The watch was his model,” end quote. Okay, first clock of which every portion was made in America, maybe. Still not the first clock in America. But then, two years later, 1865, American abolitionist Lydia Maria Child published a book that was intended to teach recently freed African Americans to read, right this is right after the Civil War. So this is a noble thing she’s doing, she’s created this text book to teach them to read and she’s included information in it to inspire them. That’s great. But only if the information is true. Because she says in this book that Banneker had created the quote “first clock ever made in this country,” end quote. And then that false fact is reported over and over again over the next century and half in all kinds of books and publications to the point where, in 1980, when the US Postal Service issued a stamp to commemorate Banneker, their description read quote “In 1753, he built the first watch made in America, a wooden pocket watch,” end quote. Which like what? That’s wrong on multiple fronts. He didn’t make a watch, he made a clock. He used a watch to make a clock. And it wasn’t the first one in America. You see how it just gets so twisted? And when the US government itself, the postal service, is putting this information out, people assume it’s true.
But do you also see how, when you're led to believe that the man created the first clock in America and then you learn that he actually didn’t, it detracts from his real accomplishment? You go “oh, well he didn’t even make the first clock so who cares?” But it’s like, okay, you go be born into a Black family in 1731 in a tobacco field and try to hand carve a working clock out of wood and then tell me that isn’t impressive. We don’t need to embellish these stories. We need to appreciate them as truth. They are impressive because they are true. He did that. And it doesn’t have to be the first clock in America to be impressive. If you think that’s a requirement, then you are completely overlooking the circumstances of this man’s life and the insurmountable odds of him accomplishing something like that despite those circumstances. And that’s an injustice to his truth.
Alright, let me get down off my soapbox for a minute. I’ll hop back up later, I’m sure. Some twenty years later, when Banneker is in his 40s and running the family farm by this point, he gets some interesting new neighbors. The Ellicotts, a Quaker family from Pennsylvania move to Baltimore County to start a gristmill just a few miles down the road from Banneker’s tobacco farm. A gristmill is used for grinding grain into flour. Now, Quakers were all about equality. They didn’t believe in slavery and they didn’t believe in discrimination against people of other races. And so the Ellicotts become fast friends with Benjamin Banneker whereas some of his other white neighbors may have been a bit standoffish towards him. It’s been proposed that Banneker expressed interest in the mill and how it worked and that’s how he formed a connection with the Ellicotts. He hand carved clock gears out of wood so he was obviously interested in mechanical things. But one way or another, they form a friendship, particularly with George Ellicott who was a land surveyor with an interest in astronomy. George loaned Banneker some of his astronomy books and lunar tables and this is another theory as to how Banneker became a self-taught astronomer. In 1789, when he was 58 years old, Banneker successfully forecasted a solar eclipse. But this interest and skill in astronomy would serve him in other ways as well.
In 1790, the fledgling US government under first President George Washington made plans to establish a capital city along the Potomac River on the border of Virginia and Maryland, the future Washington DC. Andrew Ellicott, who was the cousin of Banneker’s neighbor buddy George, was brought on as an engineer to basically lay out where the city was going to be. It was to be 10 miles long and 10 miles wide, so a 100 square mile square of land. And they needed Andrew Ellicott to use his math and science skills to map this out and mark the boundaries. Andrew decides to bring Banneker along to help him. Now, why would he do this? A lot of the sources say, well the guys he usually had help him were busy. He just needed somebody so he grabbed Banneker. I don’t think so. This is a pretty prestigious honor here. He is being asked by George Washington to help map out the future capital city of the country. He’s not just randomly grabbing his cousin’s tobacco farmer buddy for this. Andrew Ellicott had to have seen something in Banneker. He must have realized how intelligent and talented the man was. I think he brought Banneker along because, Black or White or whatever, Banneker was the best man for the job. Andrew needed his expertise in order to do this thing right and not disappoint his country.
So Banneker goes to the future site of the nation’s capital, Washington DC. According to the White House Historical Association, it’s the first time, in his life, that he had ventured more than 10 miles away from home. Now, I’m not even going to pretend to understand how land surveying works, especially not in the 1790s. They’re using a lot of instruments and messing around with astronomical observations and altitude and latitude. Here is how the White House Historical Association describes Banneker’s involvement quote “Because of his age, health, and the harsh winter climate, Banneker’s primary responsibilities were in the observatory tent, where he maintained the regulator clock using a series of thermometers and a transit and altitude instrument. Each day, Ellicott would use the regulator clock to set his own timepiece, which he would use to determine latitude. At night, Banneker would record astronomical observations. He was paid $2 a day for his work—less than Ellicott’s $5 but commensurate with salary for assistant surveyors at that time,” end quote. Okay, that, hate to break it to you, but that is pretty much the extent of Benjamin Banneker’s involvement in planning Washington DC. I know, I know, I wanted him to be the master architect behind it all too, but he just wasn’t. Actually, by April 1791, he had returned home to work on his farm only 3 months after starting the DC project. So his involvement was minimal. I mean I think it was important. I really do think Andrew Ellicott needed his mind, his expertise and I think he helped get the ball rolling on the whole thing but to then go and say that he designed the whole city, once again it just sets people up for disappointment and he doesn’t deserve to have us be disappointed in him and his achievements.
So where did that myth come from? That a Black man, Benjamin Banneker was somehow secretly the master architect behind Washington DC? Well, when this whole project was thought up, Washington appointed three commissioners to oversee the whole thing. And they brought on Andrew Ellicott as engineer who brought Banneker with him. Their job was to map out the 10 mile by 10 mile square border of the city. That’s it. Separately, they brought on Pierre Charles L’Enfant who was a French born architect and urban planner who had served as a volunteer in the American Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Because remember, France also wanted to see the British beaten during that war. So he helped us out, we let him design our capital city. But L’Enfant clashed horribly with the three commissioners in charge of the project. For whatever reason they just did not get along and it got so bad that George Washington actually dismissed him, fired him, before the project was completed. And I think that bit of drama, L’Enfant leaving in the middle of the project, leaves the door the tiniest bit cracked open to allow our imaginations to run wild with, well then who designed the city? Was it the Black guy no one would ever expect? Wouldn’t that be awesome? Yes, it would be awesome, if it were true. But it’s not. But that didn’t stop multiple false accounts coming out over the decades that followed. Some of the accounts say that L’Enfant actually died while working on the plans and Banneker took over for him. Not true. L’Enfant lived for several more decades after this, we know. Some of the accounts say that, when L’Enfant was fired, Banneker revealed to the president that he had, just like for fun, transcribed all of L’Enfant’s field notes and was able to reproduce the plans for the city that they then used. Another account says that, when L’Enfant was fired, Banneker went home to his farm and, over a period of three days, was able to reproduce the plans from memory that they then used for the city in some crazy like a Beautiful Mind style show of inhuman mental fortitude. But in reality, Banneker likely never even met L’Enfant or George Washington or ever saw those plans. When Banneker returned home in April of 1791 to tend to his farm, leaving the DC project for good, L’Enfant was still working on the plans for the city and hadn’t even been fired from the job yet. He presented those plans to Washington in June and August of 1791, two and four months after Banneker had returned home. So the timeline does not add up for Banneker to somehow swoop in after L’Enfant gets fired to reconstruct the plans and save the day. Plus, there was no need to reconstruct the plans. L’Enfant had already submitted earlier versions of them to Washington well before being fired which is what they ultimately used. It doesn’t add up and, and just like why? Why does Benjamin Banneker have to design Washington DC? Why do we need to give that credit to him? The man is impressive enough in real life. Now, one place we do actually need to give back credit is in the construction of the city. Because the infrastructure, the buildings, the roads, all of it, the Capitol building, the White House, all of it was built by enslaved Black people. So yes, a Black man, many Black men did build our nation's capital. Let’s focus on that. That’s true. We owe them our admiration and appreciation for the work they did, unpaid, enslaved. They built our nation's capital. And instead, we’re choosing to focus on a made up story in an attempt to lift up a Black man, Benjamin Banneker, and inspire as an example of Black excellence and potential. Look what he did, isn’t that so amazing? And I think the intentions are good but it’s ultimately damaging. Because it isn’t true and it’s actually a distraction from what Banneker really accomplished and from what we should really be focusing on, that Black Americans really did build Washington DC with their own blood, sweat, and tears, but their names weren’t Benjamin Banneker. We likely have no record of their names because they were enslaved.
So Banneker went home in April of 1791, he had no more to do with the DC project. He had a farm to tend to and he carried on with his astronomical studies. He actually started putting together an almanac which he would go on to publish in 1792. An almanac is a super impressive book, like a handbook for the year, that includes important dates and statistical data, astronomical calculations, that sort of thing. I challenge you to write your own almanac. Make a working wooden clock and write an almanac and then tell me the real Benjamin Banneker wasn’t impressive enough. According to the White House Historical Association quote “At the time, almanacs were mainly used to predict long-range weather patterns, but they also provided a way to share opinions and other types of content. As many of his possessions were destroyed in a fire shortly after his death, Banneker’s slim booklets, published annually from 1792 to 1797 by white northern abolitionists, offer a rare window not only into the author’s skill as an astronomer, but also into his personality and outlook. They reveal a man with a full heart and an active mind, at turns contemplative and light-hearted — a scientist on one page and a philosopher on the next,” end quote.
In 1791, in order to get his first almanac published he needed someone to proofread it, right, check and make sure everything was correct. This is the type of book you want to have right. But not just anyone could do that because not just anyone understood the calculations that went into writing an almanac. So that job fell to an abolitionist, scientist, and fellow surveyor named David Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse ultimately approved the almanac calling it quote “a very extraordinary performance, considering the colour of the Author,” end quote. Now this was him given his stamp of approval for the almanac to be published but Banneker was not stoked. He was frustrated by this response writing quote “I am annoyed to find that the subject of my race is so much stressed. The work is either correct or it is not. In this case, I believe it to be perfect,” end quote. Because Rittenhouse was basically like “I mean it’s good for Black guy.” Right? And Banneker is being like “it’s good for any guy. Why does it matter that I’m Black?” But this comes up again and again in almost every contemporary mention of Benjamin Banneker and his work, there is some mention of his race. They have to mention it. In the intro of the almanac, a Maryland statesman named James McHenry wrote quote “I consider this Negro as fresh proof that the powers of the mind are disconnected with the colour of the skin,” end quote. Which like, great, glad you finally figured that out but it’s once again saying “It’s good, for a Black guy.” In that same introduction the editors wrote that they quote “feel themselves gratified in the Opportunity of presenting to the Public, through the Medium of their Press, what must be considered as an extraordinary Effort of Genius — a complete and accurate EPHEMERIS for the Year 1792, calculated by a sable Descendant of Africa,” end quote. They can’t not mention his race. And this bugs Banneker. He wants to be appreciated as a human being period. Not as a Black man.
It’s perhaps this very frustration that causes him to write a letter to Thomas Jefferson in August of 1791 as he’s going about trying to get his almanac published and getting all of this “it’s good, for a Black guy” feedback. Jefferson had helped to write the Declaration of Independence and was currently serving as US secretary of state. He would not become president for another ten years. Jefferson also, remember, enslaved around 600 people throughout his lifetime. He had also written a book back in 1785 called Notes on the State of Virginia that implied that Black people were intellectually inferior to white people. And so, Banneker, frustrated that his race keeps being brought up alongside any mention of his intelligence, like a disclaimer, sits down and he writes a letter to Thomas Jefferson that reads quote “Sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that altho you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of those rights and privileges which he had conferred upon them, that you should at the same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the Same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to your Selves,” end quote. Mic drop. I know the language is kind of hard to understand but what Banneker is doing here is sticking it to Thomas Jefferson. He’s calling him out as a hypocrite which is what I wish every single other body had done but they didn’t have the balls Banneker had, for lack of a better word. He’s saying, you know, how can you say that slavery is evil and vile? How can you say that all men were created equal and yet you yourself enslave people, “detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression." I love my brethren, it’s like the 1790s version of brotha. So he sends Jefferson this letter along with a handwritten copy of the almanac which is slated for publication but has not yet been printed as if to be like “and don’t you dare suggest that Black people aren’t as smart as white people, let me see you write something like this.”
Jefferson gets all this and he mulls it over, I assume, and he writes a letter back dated August 30, 1791. According to Wikipedia, quote “His reply, which writers have characterized as "courteous", "polite", "ambivalent", "ambiguous", "evasive", "tepid" and "noncommittal", stated quote “Sir, I thank you sincerely for your letter… and for the Almanac it contained. no body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colours of men, & that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa & America. I can add with truth that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising the condition both of their body & mind to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecillity of their present existence, and other circumstance which cannot be neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your almanac to Monsieur de Condorcet, Secretary of the Academy of sciences at Paris, and member of the Philanthropic society because I considered it as a document to which your whole colour had a right for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them,” end quote. Might I add, that it was Thomas Jefferson himself who cast those quote “doubts which have been entertained of them” in his 1785 book.
So he sends the almanac to this French mathematician guy and he writes him a letter that reads quote “I am happy to be able to inform you that we have now in the United States a negro, the son of a black man born in Africa, and of a black woman born in the United States, who is a very respectable mathematician. I procured him to be employed under one of our chief directors in laying out the new federal city on the Patowmac [side note, false, Jefferson had nothing to do with Banneker joining Ellicott to help survey the land for DC], & in the intervals of his leisure, while on that work, he made an Almanac for the next year, which he sent me in his own hand writing, & which I inclose to you. I have seen very elegant solutions of Geometrical problems by him. Add to this that he is a very worthy & respectable member of society. He is a free man. I shall be delighted to see these instances of moral eminence so multiplied as to prove that the want of talents observed in them is merely the effect of their degraded condition, and not proceeding from any difference in the structure of the parts on which intellect depends,” end quote. But then, in 1809, three years after Banneker’s death, Jefferson wrote in a letter to a political friend quote “the whole do not amount in point of evidence, to what we know ourselves of Banneker. we know he had spherical trigonometry enough to make almanacs, but not without the suspicion of aid from Ellicot, who was his neighbor & friend, & never missed an opportunity of puffing him. I have a long letter from Banneker which shews him to have had a mind of very common stature indeed,” end quote. Basically implying with zero evidence that George Ellicott, a white man, must have helped Banneker write the almanacz and totally pushing his white people are smarter than Black people BS all over again. This guy really sucked. Like what a jerk. I have so much dislike for Thomas Jefferson. I appreciate what he did for our country, but that guy sucked.
Banneker wrote almanacs like this every year between 1792 and 1797 which is in and of itself incredibly impressive but that was, unfortunately, also embellished. Lydia Marie Child’s 1865 book, remember the one she wrote to teach recently freed Black people how to read that said his clock was the first one made in America, well it also said that his 1792 almanac was the first one quote “constructed in America.” Which, I mean, okay, I get it. She’s trying to inspire Black people. She’s teaching them to read and she’s trying to inspire them and build their confidence and help them see their worth. I genuinely think Child’s intentions were good. But ultimately, she’s publishing false information as fact and it then goes on to feed the telephone game until everyone thinks that Banneker’s almanac really was the first one despite tons of evidence to the contrary like actual published books to the contrary starting with William Pierce’s 1639 almanac from almost a hundred years before Banneker was even born. Why does Banneker’s have to be the first? It’s already impressive enough.
Banneker died in October of 1806 at his farm in Baltimore County and even his obituary writer couldn’t help but mention his race in regards to his intelligence, concluding quote “Mr. Banneker is a prominent instance to prove that a descendant of Africa is susceptible of as great mental improvement and deep knowledge into the mysteries of nature as that of any other nation,” end quote. Guys, it’s like, by saying that over and over again, all you’re doing is admitting that you did in fact believe white people were smarter than other races. Otherwise, why even say it? Why even point it out? He’s an intelligent human being. Period. And we know this bugged Banneker. So I hate that it made its way into the man’s obituary. A few days after his death, during his funeral actually, his house caught on fire and burnt to the ground. And this destroyed most of his writings and possessions including his wooden clock which was still keeping time in the corner of his log cabin. So we lost a lot of truths we could have known about Banneker that day. All that we really truly know about him comes from some letters he wrote, his almanacs, and a single journal which survived the fire. That journal contained some writing that morphed its way into another Banneker myth. In 1800, he recorded an observation in that journal about cicadas which are a type of locust but they don’t actually mess up crops or anything. If you’ve ever been to the American south in the summer time, you know what a cicada is because they are incredibly loud. But it’s a bug, and, it’s kind of a crazy bug because they spend like years buried underground and then they come out and they leave their little exoskeletons all over the place. They’re a crazy bug, I’m realizing I’m desensitized because we get so many where I live but, if you’re not familiar with them, they probably seem truly bizarre. But, anyway, Banneker had recorded an observation in this journal that cicadas had appeared in 1749, 1766, and 1783 which are all 17 years apart and so he expected them to return that year, 1800 because it had been another 17 years. And I love him for noticing this. It says a lot about his brain. Not many people are noting the years cicadas appear throughout their entire lifetime. And since then, sources have claimed, including the Washington Post in a 2004 article, that Bannker was the first to document this 17 year cycle of cicadas. But that is, of course, false. And it doesn’t even take much digging to disprove it. Over fifty years before, in 1749, a Finnish naturalist named Pehr Kalm who was visiting Pennsylvania and New Jersey witnessed the emergence of that first group of cicadas Banneker noted, the 1749 group. And he wrote quote “The general opinion is that these insects appear in these fantastic numbers in every seventeenth year. Meanwhile, except for an occasional one which may appear in the summer, they remain underground.
There is considerable evidence that these insects appear every seventeenth year in Pennsylvania.” end quote. And he cited documents that came from Benjamin Franklin actually that recorded 1715 and and 1732 cicada emergences. So, once again Banneker was not the first. But why must he be the first? Even with the dang cicadas? Like come on!
I’m frustrated by the history of Benjamin Banneker because I don’t think he’s gotten the respect he deserved. And some may say he’s gotten more respect than he deserved. But is respect based on false claims even respect at all or is it just an illusion of respect? If we really want to respect the man, we need to take him out of the category of mythic folk hero and turn him back into a real person, a human being, born a free Black man into a country that would much rather see him enslaved, a country where others with his skin color were not allowed to read and write, a tobacco farmer turned self taught astronomer who correctly calculated eclipses, and geographical locations, and weather patterns, and insect cycles. The man was brilliant and not just for a Black guy. He was brilliant among all human beings, so brilliant, that his story needs no embellishment. The real Benjamin Banneker was impressive enough.
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Information used in this episode was sourced from The White House Historical Association, Wikipedia, The Washington Post, and Encyclopedia Britannica. As always, links to these sources can be found in the show notes.
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