August 19, 1791
Benjamin Banneker sent a copy of his just-published almanac to Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, along with an appeal on behalf of African-Americans’ “humiliating condition (slavery)…” He wrote,
“… Sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that altho you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of those rights and privileges which he had 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 your Selves.”
Banneker was a free African-American from Baltimore whose knowledge of astronomy helped him author a commercially successful series of almanacs.
