Interesting Figure: "Ben Bey" known as Benjamin Banneker, An American Genius

Although it is difficult to verify details of Benjamin Banneker's family history, it appears that he was a grandson of a European American named Molly Welsh. The story goes that Molly met a slave named Banneka when she purchased him to help establish a farm located near the future site of Ellicott's Mills, west of Baltimore, Maryland. This part of Maryland was out of the mainstream of the colonial South, and as result had a more tolerant attitude toward African Americans than did colonial areas in which slavery was more prevalent. Perhaps a member of the Dogon tribe (reputed to have a historical knowledge of astronomy), Banneka may have cleared Molly's land, solved irrigation problems, and implemented a crop rotation for her. Soon thereafter, Molly freed and married Banneka, who may have shared his knowledge of astronomy with her. In 1788 he began his more formal study of astronomy as an adult. In February 1791, Major Andrew Ellicott, hired Banneker to survey the boundaries of the 100-square-mile (260 km2) federal district (the District of Columbia) that Maryland and Virginia would cede to the federal government of the United States for the nation's capital (Washington DC). This seldom spoken about African was such a great thinker in the formulation of America's early beginnings and his work is still largely under-rated. Banneker expressed his views on slavery and racial equality in a letter to Thomas Jefferson and in other documents that he placed within his 1793 almanac, and he corresponded with the President on numerous occasions about these subjects.

Benjamin Banneker:

"…Sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that although you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of Mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of these rights and privileges, which he hath conferred upon them, that you should at the same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren, under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves."

Below is a video about this man and some of his accomplishments.