The Signature of Benjamin Banneker. One of the rarest of African American autographs.
Taking up the study of Astronomy at age 58, Banneker predicted an eclipse in 1789, and compiled an annual “Almanack and Ephemeris,” for six consecutive years, 1792 to 1797.
Also in the Mitchell Collection is the November 28, 1791 issue of Dunlap’s American Daily Advertiser which reports: “An Almanac, for 1792, is published at Baltimore by Benjamin Banneker, a free Negro, born in Baltimore. The calculations of this Almanac are so accurate that the edition is said to do credit to the Editors, Messrs. Goddard and Angel.”
Having secured his commission to assist in surveying the capital city, Banneker used the occasion to further demonstrate his abilities by sending Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson his handwritten draft and calculations for the almanac’s premiere edition. He attached an eloquent letter pleading for abolition, urging him to “readily embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions which so generally prevail with respect to us.” Jefferson, in Philadelphia, quickly replied on August 30, 1791, stating in part:
Sir,
I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th inst. and for the almanack 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 colors of men … I have taken the liberty of sending your Almanac to Monsieur de Condozett, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris … because I considered it as a document, to which your whole color had a right for their justification, against the doubts which have been entertained of them. I am with great esteem, Sir.
Your most obed’t, humble serv’t,
Th. Jefferson
To the delight of northern abolitionists, the letter and its reply were reprinted in many newspapers including the Virginia Gazette, and the Mitchell Collection’s copy of Philadelphia’s The Mail; or, Claypoole’s Daily Advertiser, on Oct. 16, 1792.
During Banneker’s funeral, attendees saw his cabin inexplicably burst into flame, so few of his personal items remain.