Posts tagged "maryland"

Benjamin Banneker – The Stargazer

Benjamin Banneker

1731-1806

birthplace – Endicott, Maryland

“The Stargazer”

The young man was amazed by the number of stars that appeared in the clear, moonlight sky.  ”i’ve never seen so many stars before,” he thought.  He lay on the ground and began to count them.

This is how Benjamin Banneker spent many of his nights.  Neighbors called him “the stargazer.”

When Benjamin left school to help on his father’s farm, the world became his classroom.  He studied the weather, animal life, the stars — everything he could.  He read all the books that were available to him.  By the time he was 20, Benjamin could answer the most difficult questions in mathematics, science, and philosophy.

In 1761, he carved a wooden cloth by hand, using only two models — a pocket watch and an old picture of a clock.  It is said that the clock kept nearly perfect time for 50 years.

Benjamin was the first black person to receive a presidential appointment.  In 1791, George Washington named him to the commission that laid out the city of Washington, D. C.

Although Benjamin had never been a slave, he spoke out against the system that held his people in bondage.  The young man who studied the stars became an astronomer.  But he was also a mathematician, inventor, serveyor, philosopher, and abolitionist.