Benjamin Banneker
...d 2. next to the Banneker farm and established a school for boys, which Banneker attended. He excelled in mathematics and enjoyed reading. No one knows when Benjamin first used the name Banneker. After he went to school , it became his last name . Perhaps the teacher, Peter Heinrich first spelled it “Banneker” as he wrote it on the chalkboard. At the age of twenty-one, Benjamin met a man named Josef Levi, who showed him a pocket watch. Banneker was so fascinated that Levi loaned the watch to him. Levi said he would pick it up the next time he came to town. Benjamin studied how it worked, drew a picture of it, and made mathematical calculations for the parts. He worked on building the clock for two years. In 1753, it was completed. It was made of wood and he had carved the gears by hand. This was the first clock built in the United States. For more than forty years, the clock struck every hour. People came from all over the county to see the clock. Word spread about the young inventor and some people hired him to repair their clocks and watches. In addition to creating America's first clock, Banneker had an interest in astronomy. When Banneker's friend Andrew Ellicott died, he left him books on astronomy, scientific instruments, and a telescope. Banneker began to study astronomy and made mathematical calculations of the stars and constellations. 3. He used these calculations to correctly predict a solar eclipse that took place on April 14, 1789. Even well-known scientists did not expect the eclipse. His abilities in astronomy and mathematics led him to create an almanac in 1792. In it he made all the calculations himself and included information about the times of eclipses, weather forecasts, the hours of sunrise and sunset, festival days, holidays, and much more. It became a popular resource for people in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The Almanac sold well and he received fame in England and France. He published the almanacs every year until 1797. Banneker's almanac served as a contradiction to the widely held belief that blacks were inferior. Banneker was not quiet about this contradiction. He was a social critic of slavery. In an attempt to promote change, he sent a copy of his first Almanac to Thomas Jefferson, who at the time was Secretary of State under President Washington. He enclosed a letter in which he wrote about the inconsistency of Jefferson's position on the equality of all men while at the same time owning slaves. Jefferson replied eleven days later, and this was just the beginning of a long correspondence on the issue of slavery and the intellectual ability of blacks. When President Washington decided to move the ...