Benjamin Banneker

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or slave-to be smart enough to calculate the movements of the stars the way Banneker did. Banneker was determined to create an almanac that would be the first of its kind. Therefore, he spent close to a year observing the sky every night. He plotted the cycles of the moon and made careful notes. He began publishing the ‘Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac and Ephemeris’ in 1791, and continued doing so until 1802.
Bannekar also knew that many people would use and learn from his almanac. However, he wondered what good his almanac would be to black people who were enslaved and could not read. He decided to write a letter to Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, because Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, a document that stated, “all men are created equal” even though he himself owned slaves. Banneker believed that wasn’t right. So, Mr. Bannekar sent a letter in which he expressed his strong feelings against ...

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