Volume I Part 54 (1/2)
[603] From Mr. Bancroft's MSS., America, 1783, vol. ii. Quoted by Dr.
Moore.
[604] Sparks's Was.h.i.+ngton, vol. viii. p. 428, note.
[605] Works of Hamilton, vol. vii. p. 191.
[606] Sparks's Was.h.i.+ngton, vol. viii. pp. 431,432.
[607] Sparks's Was.h.i.+ngton, vol. viii, Appendix, p. 544.
[608] U.S. Statutes at large, vol. viii, pp. 54, 57.
[609] Ibid., pp. 80, 83.
[610] U.S. Statutes at large, vol. viii. p. 218.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE NEGRO INTELLECT.--BANNEKER THE ASTRONOMER.[611].--FULLER THE MATHEMATICIAN.--DERHAM THE PHYSICIAN.
STATUTORY PROHIBITION AGAINST THE EDUCATION OF NEGROES.--BENJAMIN BANNEKER, THE NEGRO ASTRONOMER AND PHILOSOPHER.--HIS ANTECEDENTS.--YOUNG BANNEKER AS A FARMER AND INVENTOR.--THE MILLS OF ELLICOTT & Co.--BANNEKER CULTIVATES HIS MECHANICAL GENIUS AND MATHEMATICAL TASTES.--BANNEKER'S FIRST CALCULATION OF AN ECLIPSE SUBMITTED FOR INSPECTION IN 1789.--HIS LETTER TO MR.
ELLICOTT.--THE TESTIMONY OF A PERSONAL ACQUAINTANCE OF BANNEKER AS TO HIS UPRIGHT CHARACTER.--HIS HOME BECOMES A PLACE OF INTEREST TO VISITORS.--RECORD OF HIS BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS.--MRS MASON'S VISIT TO HIM.--SHE ADDRESSES HIM IN VERSE.--BANNEKER REPLIES BY LETTER TO HER.--PREPARES HIS FIRST ALMANAC FOR PUBLICATION IN 1792.--t.i.tLE OF HIS ALMANAC.--BANNEKER'S LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.--THOMAS JEFFERSON'S REPLY.--BANNEKER INVITED TO ACCOMPANY THE COMMISSIONERS TO RUN THE LINES OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.--BANNEKER'S HABITS OF STUDYING THE HEAVENLY BODIES.--MINUTE DESCRIPTION GIVEN TO HIS SISTERS IN REFERENCE TO THE DISPOSITION OF HIS PERSONAL PROPERTY AFTER DEATH..--HIS DEATH..--REGARDED AS THE MOST DISTINGUISHED NEGRO OF HIS TIME.--FULLER THE MATHEMATICIAN, OR ”THE VIRGINIA CALCULATOR”.--FULLER OF AFRICAN BIRTH, BUT STOLEN AND SOLD AS A SLAVE INTO VIRGINIA.--VISITED BY MEN OF LEARNING.--HE WAS p.r.o.nOUNCED TO BE A PRODIGY IN THE MANIPULATION OF FIGURES.--HIS DEATH.--DERHAM THE PHYSICIAN.--SCIENCE OF MEDICINE REGARDED AS THE MOST INTRICATE PURSUIT OF MAN.--DAILY LIFE OF JAMES DERHAM.--HIS KNOWLEDGE OF MEDICINES, HOW ACQUIRED.--HE BECOMES A PROMINENT PHYSICIAN IN NEW ORLEANS.--DR. RUSH GIVES AN ACCOUNT OF AN INTERVIEW WITH HIM.--WHAT THE NEGRO RACE PRODUCED BY THEIR GENIUS IN AMERICA.
From the moment slavery gained a foothold in North America until the direful hour that witnessed its dissolution amid the shock of embattled arms, learning was the forbidden fruit that no Negro dared taste. Positive and explicit statutes everywhere, as fiery swords, drove him away hungry from the tree of intellectual life; and all persons were forbidden to pluck the fruit for him, upon pain of severe penalties. Every yearning for intellectual food was answered by whips and thumb-screws.
But, notwithstanding the state of almost instinctive ignorance in which slavery held the Negro, there were those who occasionally astounded the world with the brightness of their intellectual genius.
There were some Negroes whose minds ran the gauntlet of public proscription on one side and repressive laws on the other, and safely gained eminence in _astronomy, mathematics_, and _medicine_.
BANNEKER THE ASTRONOMER.
BENJAMIN BANNEKER, the Negro _astronomer_ and _philosopher_, was born in Maryland, on the 9th of November, 1731. His maternal grandmother was a white woman, a native of England, named _Molly Welsh_. She came to Maryland in a s.h.i.+pload of white emigrants, who, according to the custom of those days, were sold to pay their pa.s.sage. She served her master faithfully for seven years, when, being free, she purchased a small farm, at a nominal price. Soon after she bought two Negro slaves from a s.h.i.+p that had come into the Chesapeake Bay, and began life anew. Both of these Negroes proved to be men of more than ordinary fidelity, industry, and intelligence. One of them, it was said, was the son of an African king. She gave him his freedom, and then married him. His name was Banneker.[612] Four children were the fruit of this union; but the chief interest centres in only one,--a girl, named Mary. Following the example of her mother, she also married a native of Africa: but both tradition and history preserve an unbroken silence respecting his life, with the single exception that, embracing the Christian religion, he was baptized ”Robert Banneker;” and the record of his death is thus preserved, in the family Bible: ”_Robert Banneker departed this life, July 'ye_ 10th 1759.” Thus it is evident that he took his wife's surname. Benjamin Banneker was the only child of Robert and Mary Banneker.
Young Benjamin was a great favorite with his grandmother, who taught him to read. She had a sincere love of the Sacred Scriptures, which she did not neglect to inculcate into the youthful heart of her grandson. In the neighborhood,--at that time an almost desolate spot,--a school was conducted where the master admitted several Colored children, with the whites, to the benefits of his instructions. It was a ”pay school,” and thither young Banneker was sent at a very tender age. His application to his studies was equalled by none. When the other pupils were playing, he found great pleasure in his books. How long he remained in school, is not known.
His father purchased a farm of one Richard Gist, and here he spent the remnant of his days.
When young Banneker had obtained his majority, he gave attention to the various interests of farm-life. He was industrious, intelligent in his labors, scrupulously neat in the management of his grounds, cultivated a valuable garden, was gentle in his treatment of stock,--horses, cows, etc.,--and was indeed comfortably situated.
During those seasons of leisure which come to agriculturists, he stored his mind with useful knowledge. Starting with the Bible, he read history, biography, travels, romance, and such works on general literature as he was able to borrow. His mind seemed to turn with especial satisfaction to mathematics, and he acquainted himself with the most difficult problems.
He had a taste also for mechanics. He conceived the idea of making a timepiece, a clock, and about the year 1770 constructed one. With his imperfect tools, and with no other model than a borrowed watch, it had cost him long and patient labor to perfect it, to make the variation necessary to cause it to strike the hours, and produce a concert of correct action between the hour, the minute, and the second machinery.
He confessed that its regularity in pointing out the progress of time had amply rewarded all his pains in its construction.[613]
In 1773 Ellicott & Co. built flour-mills in a valley near the banks of the Patapsco River. Banneker watched the mills go up; and, when the machinery was set in motion, looked on with interest, as he had a splendid opportunity of observing new principles of mechanism. He made many visits to the mills, and became acquainted with their proprietors; and, till the day of his death, he found in the Ellicotts kind and helpful friends.
After a short time the Ellicotts erected a store, where, a little later, a post-office, was opened. To this point the farmers and gentlemen, for miles around, used to congregate. Banneker often called at the post-office, where, after overcoming his natural modesty and diffidence, he was frequently called out in conversations covering a variety of topics. His conversational powers, his inexhaustible fund of information, and his broad learning (for those times and considering his circ.u.mstances), made him the connoisseur of that section. At times he related, in modest terms, the difficulties he was constrained to encounter in order to acquire the knowledge of books he had, and the unsatisfied longings he still had for further knowledge.
His fame as a mathematician was already established, and with the increasing facilities of communication his accomplishments and achievements were occupying the thought of many intelligent people.
”By this time he had become very expert in the solution of difficult mathematical problems, which were then, more than in this century, the amus.e.m.e.nt of persons of leisure, and they were frequently sent to him from scholars residing in different parts of our country who wished to test his capacity. He is reported to have been successful in every case, and, sometimes, he returned with his answers, questions of his own composition conveyed in rhyme.”