Benjamin Banneker (Grades 3-12)

Issued in 1980, this U.S. postage stamp honors Benjamin Banneker.

Benjamin Banneker, the great African American scientist, was born on November 9, 1731, on his family's farm in Maryland. Though his father was once a slave, Benjamin was born free to Robert and Mary Bannaky (later changed to Banneker). Banneker's grandmother* taught young Benjamin how to read and write using the Bible as his text. His only formal schooling took place in a one-room schoolhouse. The school, run by a Quaker, operated just during the winter.

As he got older, Banneker could no longer attend school, even though the school year was a short one, because he needed to help his parents on their farm. But this didn't mean he stopped learning. In fact, learning was a lifetime preoccupation for Banneker. According to The Life of Benjamin Banneker** by Silvio Bedini, it is likely that Banneker borrowed books from his former teacher. Among the subjects he continued to take an intense interest in was mathematics, and later in his life he taught himself astronomy. He also loved music and played the flute and the violin.

Banneker was about 21 the first time he saw a pocket watch. He was fascinated by it and was able to borrow it. Banneker took the watch apart to see how it worked and, amazingly, reassembled it in perfect working order. He made drawings of the different parts and figured out mathematically all the essential details such as the sizes of the gears and the number of teeth needed to make the wheels and gears work. He then built his own clock, mostly out of wood. The clock was very precise, striking each hour on the hour for more than 50 years. Clocks were hardly a common household item, and as news of his clock spread throughout the community, people would come by to admire and learn about it.

Banneker's work with clocks brought him into contact with his neighbor George Ellicott, who shared Banneker's interest. It was Ellicott who first supplied Banneker with books on advanced mathematics and astronomy as well as lent him helpful equipment, including a telescope and drafting tools. Farming during the day, Banneker spent his evenings teaching himself astronomy. Many nights he would wrap himself in a blanket and lie down outside to observe the movements of the stars until dawn. Among the amazing things he taught himself to do was to calculate eclipses, both lunar and solar. Banneker's efforts led him to successfully predict solar and lunar eclipses. In fact, unlike many of the leading astronomers of the time, Banneker correctly predicted the solar eclipse that occurred on April 14, 1789.

Predictions of eclipses were an important part of almanacs, one of the most accessible and inexpensive forms of reading material at the time--books were available but expensive. With easy access to books today, it's often startling to remember that at the time of our country's founding, most people owned few books, if any. Banneker was able to buy his first book when he was 32--a copy of the Bible. Bedini points out that a lack of books, calendars, and newspapers (in rural communities) is one of the reasons that almanacs played a vital part in the lives of so many people. Almanacs were an important resource for farmers, sailors, and the population in general. They provided information on tides, the weather, sunrises and sunsets, phases of the moon, and solar and lunar eclipses. Some of the more entertaining material--such as advice, poems, and sayings, along with articles that sometimes focused on news in the young country--was sometimes added by the printer, rather than the almanac writer. Different printers often printed the same year's almanac, but each printer might include different information and target a different geographic area.

From 1792 to 1797, Banneker published his predictions in an annual almanac. The almanac became a best seller in many parts of the country (it generally was aimed at people in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia and sometimes Kentucky and North Carolina) and was even known in Europe. In the second year the almanac was published, Banneker sent then Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson a letter pointing out that "one universal Father hath given being to us all, and that he hath not only made us all of one flesh, but that he hath also without partiality afforded us all the Same Sensations, and endued us all with the same faculties. . . ." Along with the letter, Banneker included a copy of his almanac as proof that race and intelligence were unrelated. Although Banneker did not intend the letter to be a response to Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, in which Jefferson stated his erroneous perceptions about black people, it was a powerful rebuttal just the same.

Besides predictions, some of Banneker's almanacs provided information about topical subjects--for example, sections of speeches made in the British House of Commons about slavery. Some of the later editions included part of Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, Banneker's letter to Jefferson, as well as Jefferson's receptive response to Banneker's letter. (You can find copies of both these letters in several of the web sites listed in the Web Resources section below.) Another almanac featured an article entitled "An Account of the Malignant Fever Which Prevailed in Philadelphia, 1793," about a recent yellow fever epidemic. (For more on the yellow fever epidemic, see the Classroom Calendar entry Yellow Fever: Linking Science and History.)

The year before the almanac was first published, the nation was in the process of planning out its new capital in an area that would become known as the District of Columbia. George Ellicott's cousin Andrew was working on a project to survey the land there. Knowing that Andrew was looking for an astronomer for the project to help with the surveying, George Ellicott recommended that Banneker be hired. So in 1791, Banneker was appointed to work on the survey.***

Banneker died at his farm on October 9, 1806, at the age of 74. He received recognition as a talented and able scientist. As early as 1884, the biography Banneker, the Afric-American Astromoner (taken from the posthumous papers of Martha E. Tyson and edited by her daugher), was published. In 1980, he was honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a commemorative stamp. And the Banneker Historical Park & Museum was founded in recognition of his life and his achievements.

Connections

In The Life of Benjamin Banneker, Bedini proposes that Banneker taught himself to solve a type of math problem known as double position. Bedini cites the book The Scholar's Arithmetic, Designed for the Use of Schools in the United States, written by Jacob Willetts, as one that taught double position. We were able to get hold of a copy of the fourth edition, "corrected and improved." Printed in 1822, the copy we have is a well-worn, leather-bound book, about 4 inches wide, 7 inches long, and 3/4 inch thick. And it's fascinating. It has, for example, an exchange rate table to help students change "the currency of any State, into that of any other." If you lived in the New England states (specified at the bottom of the table as being "Main, New-Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut") or Virginia, and you wanted to convert, say, 1 dollar and 6 shillings to the currency of "New-York" or North Carolina, you would have to add one-third to the value of your currency. On the other hand, if you needed to convert to currency in South Carolina or Georgia, you would have to "multiply by 7 and divide product by 9."

Some of the problems from the book are so familiar, they could have been written yesterday. Others are definitely from another century. Your students might have fun trying some of these problems, reproduced here exactly as they are worded in the book (the numbers that precede the problems are the problem numbers in the book):

Web Resources

1. Who Was Benjamin Banneker?
   
   http://www.progress.org/banneker/bb.html
   This text offers a quick and easy-to-read biography of Banneker for younger students or anyone without much time.
   
   
2. Mathematicians of the African Diaspora: Benjamin Banneker
   
   http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/special/banneker-benjamin.html
   This site has it all: a biography (including corrections to it that were sent in by scholars), the text of letters from Jefferson to Banneker, and pictures from Banneker's Almanac.
   
   
3. Banneker Historical Park & Museum
   
   http://thefriendsofbanneker.org/banneker_history.htm
   This nicely designed site offers a timeline of Banneker's life, historical facts about him, and even puzzles he wrote (see the Ready-to-Go-Activities section below). This site also contains Banneker's letter to Jefferson and Jefferson's reply as well as a link to Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia.
   
   
4. Africans in America: Benjamin Banneker
   
   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p84.html
   This PBS site provides a biography along with specific information regarding Banneker's almanac and correspondence with Jefferson.
   
   
5. Benjamin Banneker's Trigonometry Puzzle
   
   http://convergence.mathdl.org/convergence/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=212
   Here is an interesting analysis of a puzzle that Banneker solved, plus a photo of the page from his journal that shows the puzzle and solution written in his hand.
   
   

Ready-to-Go Activities

1. The Friends of Benjamin Banneker: Puzzles
   
   http://thefriendsofbanneker.org/banneker_puzzles.htm
   Grades 5-12, some of which are definitely for just the upper level of this grade range. Have students give these puzzles a try. They're ones Benjamin Banneker solved.
   
   

Classroom Resources from the ENC Collection

1. African American inventors
   Date: 1998 Grade(s): 5 - 9 Cost: $24.95 ENC#: 014244
   This book features 25 short biographies of prominent African American scientists, from Banneker, to present day scientists such as Shirley Ann Jackson. Each entry provides information about the struggles, both racial and otherwise, that the scientists faced.
   (For more details see ENC Record)
   
   
   
2. Inventing the future: African-American contributions to scientific discovery and invention
   Date: 1994 Grade(s): 5 - 12 Cost: $20.00 ENC#: 005903
   This brief video presents highlights from the careers of eight African American inventors, including Benjamin Banneker.
   (For more details see ENC Record)
   
   
   
3. Mathematicians are people, too. Volume 2: stories from the lives of great mathematicians
   Featured in ENC Focus  
   Date: 1995 Grade(s): 3 - 10 Cost: $15.95 ENC#: 017862
   This book is packed with stories from the lives of famous mathematicians. Although it is written for a younger audience, even high school students will enjoy stories such as young Benjamin daydreaming about the sky while tending to cattle on the family farm.
   (For more details see ENC Record)
   
   
   
4. What are you figuring now?: a story about Benjamin Banneker
   Date: 1988 Grade(s): 3 - 6 Cost: $6.95 ENC#: 014464
   This biography is appropriate for late elementary school students. The watercolor illustrations are wonderful, and the informal text balances historical facts with anecdotes to captivate the young reader. A great book-report book!
   (For more details see ENC Record)
   
   
   

Teacher Resources from the ENC Collection

1. Historical connections in mathematics: resources for using history of mathematics in the classroom. Volume 2.
   Featured in ENC Focus  
   Date: 1993 Grade(s): 4 - 9 Cost: $18.95 ENC#: 005312
   This resource provides mathematical activities in a historical context for younger students. The chapter on Banneker offers blackline masters of mathematical puzzles similar to ones he created and a worksheet on clock gears, as well as a brief biography that would be suitable for students to read.
   (For more details see ENC Record)
   
   
   
2. Focus on scientists
   Date: 1994 Grade(s): 4 - 8 Cost: $11.95 ENC#: 007598
   This book offers brief biographies, class activities, and blackline masters of student worksheets related to 32 selected scientists. The section on Banneker contains a half-page biography, activities related to clocks and sundials, and a math puzzlers worksheet for students.
   (For more details see ENC Record)
   
   
   
3. Multiculturalism in mathematics, science, and technology: readings and activities
   Featured in ENC Focus  
   Date: 1993 Grade(s): 8 - 11 Cost: $17.95 - $24.00 ENC#: 001354
   This is a neat resource for teachers of older students. It integrates a culture or person with math and science concepts relevant to that culture or person. For example, after reading about Benjamin Banneker, students complete a worksheet on percent error in the context of the surveying work Banneker did late in his career.
   (For more details see ENC Record)
   
   
   

Search Strategies

Find more materials by searching Curriculum Resources on ENC Online using these terms: African Americans, Astronomers, Banneker, Benjamin (), Clocks, or Eclipses.

Connections to Standards

Realizing that there are many ways to use this Classroom Calendar entry, we chose these standards because they relate to the entry, in full or in part. If you want to explore the standards further, please use the link(s) provided.

Connections to NCTM Standards
Connections: Recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics
Number and Operations: Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates
Problem Solving: Apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems

Connections to NSES
Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science: Science as a human endeavor (9-12)
Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science: Science as a human endeavor (K-4)
Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science: Science as a human endeavor (5-8)
Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science: History of science (5-8)