Intro Benjamin Banneker example essay topic

Intro Benjamin Banneker was born in Maryland on November 9, 1731. His father and grandfather were former slaves. Benjamin worked as a tobacco planter for most of his life, a farmer by the modest means, nevertheless lived a life of unusual achievement. In 1753, he borrowed a pocket watch from a neighbor, took it apart and made a drawing of each component, then reassembled the watch and returned it, fully functioning, to its owner.

Then later, from his drawings, Banneker then proceeded to carve, out of wood, enlarged replicas of each part. He constructed a working wooden clock that kept accurate time and struck the hours for over 50 years. At age 58, Banneker began the study of astronomy and was soon predicting future solar and lunar eclipses. The "Sable Astronomer" was often pointed to as proof that African Americans were not intellectually inferior to European Americans. Thomas Jefferson himself noted this in a letter to Banneker.

Nature His world view, it seems, successfully integrated a traditional Christian spirituality and a modern scientist's openness to the world. He used his intellect to efficiently use the land in his favor. As a young man Benjamin worked his father's farm. He used his knack for inventions to build an irrigation system that used ditches and small dams to feed water from freshwater springs to the crops.

Banneker inherited the farm after his father's death, and because of his irrigation system, his crops flourished even in years of drought. I believe as an inventor and astronomer, Benjamin used his talents to preserve nature while at the same time benefiting from it. Supernatural The most significant force in his early education and spiritual formation, however, was his grandmother. She taught him how to read and write, and insisted that he read to her from the family Bible. To this we credit Banneker's Christian beliefs. He believed in God as the almighty creator and in his letter to Thomas Jefferson he referred to the "Supreme Ruler of the Universe" numerous times.

He stated "that one universal Father hath given being to us all". He felt that God showed no favoritism to color and "we are all of the same family, and stand in the same relation to him". Universe Benjamin believed in the almighty creator being the one great power in the universe. The Ellicott brothers, Banneker's close friends, had lent him books on astronomy and mathematics as well as instruments for observing the stars. He proceeded to teach himself astronomy and advanced mathematics.

As an astronomer he knew that the earth was just a tiny part of the universe. He successfully predicted the solar eclipse that occurred on April 14, 1789, contradicting the forecasts of prominent mathematicians and astronomers of the day. Time Benjamin was fascinated with the way things worked and the order of things. He created the first striking clock in America that held accurate time for nearly 50 years. His work on the clock led him to repair watches, clocks and sundials. I believe he was fascinated with time and published his findings in an almanac that was printed for nearly ten years.

You could find information on the motions of the sun, and when it would rise and set, and even the length of days and nights. He even added the times the courts were held in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Humanity Banneker was highly aware of the deep injustice of American slavery. He was a social critic of slavery and worked hard to discredit the belief, supported by intellectual aristocrats such as Thomas Jefferson, that the people of African descent were intellectually deficient. Banneker, being Christian, believed that the maker of the universe was not partial to the respects of color. That the color of one's skin is no way connected with the strength of their mind or intellectual strength.

He was sure that although God had marked the skin of the African darker than his brothers, He had made them equally able. In 1791 Benjamin wrote a letter to Jefferson, who was Secretary of State at the time, asking for help in improving the situation that blacks were finding themselves. Fate Banneker knew that things happened for a reason and trusted his beliefs in god, but he did not believe that he should just sit back and let things happen. He was a pioneer in the fields of mathematics and astronomy. He felt that the world should change, especially in respects to discrimination of color.

He did not believe that his sole purpose was to work on his farm, and he definitely didn't believe that his brothers of color should be exploited the way they were at that time. This is very relevant in his letter to Jefferson. Benjamin had hope for the future and wanted to make changes. Law Benjamin believed that all human kind was equal. He didn't have any formal dealings with law, but rose to find diplomatic solutions to the problem of slavery, in which he was strongly against.

He knew what was written in the Declaration of Independence and questioned Jefferson racist views. He could not understand how the excerpt, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' ' could not include those of color. He was "convinced, that if your love for yourselves, and for those inestimable laws, which preserved to you the rights of human nature, was founded on sincerity, you could not but be solicitous, that every individual, of whatever rank or distinction, might with you equally enjoy the blessings thereof; neither could you rest satisfied short of the most active effusion of your exertions, in order to their promotion from any state of degradation, to which the unjustifiable cruelty and barbarism of men may have reduced them". Conclusion Banneker died on Sunday, October 9, 1806 at the age of 74 in Ellicott City, Maryland, where he spent his entire life. He led a full life from farming tobacco for the majority of his life, to building the first striking clock in America, to developing a burning interest in astronomy that led to several popular annual almanacs, and to becoming a cause celeb r for the early abolitionist movement.

Benjamin was truly a phenomenal person..