Letters from Benjamin Banneker to U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson's reply to Banneker
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/readex/24073.html




These two letters pertain to one topic: that of Jefferson's beliefs about the African race's capacity for intellect and achievement compared to white men.

In the first letter, Banneker, a free black man and successful mathematician, challenges Jefferson's former statements concerning the capabilities of those of the African race. Jefferson is familiar with Banneker’s background—by this time, Banneker has shown his intellect by being one of the few men chosen to help survey the land that would become Washington, D.C., and he accurately predicted the solar eclipse of 1789.

Banneker opens his letter by directly confronting the seeming hypocrisy of Jefferson's statements about human rights in the Declaration of Independence with his practice of owning slaves. Banneker also questions how Jefferson can support such a tyrannical system, in light of Jefferson's own struggle to fight off tyranny in the form of the British crown.

Banneker recognizes that scientific-minded Jefferson will ask for direct proof that black men are equally capable, so he provides it. In addition to the letter, Banneker sends to Jefferson a handwritten copy of his soon-to-be-published scientific data for his 1792 almanac. Banneker hopes that the intellect he displays by contributing the data for this almanac will satisfy Jefferson's question as to whether a black man could ever equal a white man, in terms of achievement and intellect.

The second letter, then, is Jefferson's response to Banneker. The letter is somewhat cordial, but quite short and direct. Jefferson thanks Banneker for the almanac and offers his hopes that the black race lacks intellect only due to their "degraded condition" as slaves, rather than as an entire race of people destined for failure. Jefferson also notes that he will send the almanac on to anti-slavery Marquis de Condorcet, the secretary of The Academie des Sciences in Paris at that time.

(Excerpt)

SIR,
I AM fully sensible of the greatness of that freedom, which I take with you on the present occasion; a liberty which seemed to me scarcely allowable, when I reflected on that distinguished and dignified station in which you stand, and the almost general prejudice and prepossession, which is so prevalent in the world against those of my complexion.

I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you, to need a proof here, that we are a race of beings, who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world ; that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt; and that we have long been considered rather as brutish than human, and scarcely capable of mental endowments.

...Sir, suffer me to recal to your mind that time, in which the arms and tyranny of the British crown were exerted, with every powerful effort, in order to reduce you to a state of servitude: ...This, Sir, was a time when you cleary saw into the injustice of a state of slavery, and in which you had just apprehensions of the horrors of its condition. It was now that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you publicly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remembered in all succeeding ages : "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.''

...And now, Sir, although my sympathy and affection for my brethren hath caused my enlargement thus far, I ardently hope, that your candor and generosity will plead with you in my behalf, when I make known to you, that it was not originally my design; but having taken up my pen in order to direct to you, as a present, a copy of an Almanac, which I have calculated for the succeeding year, I was unexpectedly and unavoidably led thereto.

This calculation is the production of my arduous study, in this my advanced stage of life; for having long had unbounded desires to become acquainted with the secrets of nature, I have had to gratify my curiosity herein, through my own assiduous application to Astronomical Study, in which I need not recount to you the many difficulties and disadvantages, which I have had to encounter.

...And now, Sir, I shall conclude, and subscribe myself, with the most profound respect,
Your most obedient humble servant,

BENJAMIN BANNEKER.

SIR,

I THANK you, sincerely, for your letter of the 19th instant, and for the Almanac it contained. No body wishes more than I do, to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colors of men; and that the appearance of the want of them, is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America. I can add with truth, that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced, for raising the condition, both of their body and mind, to what it ought to be, as far as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances, which cannot be neglected, will admit.

I have taken the liberty of sending your Almanac to Monsieur de Condozett, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and Member of the Philanthropic Society, because I considered it as a document, to which your whole color had a right for their justification, against the doubts which have been entertained of them.

I am with great esteem, Sir, Your most obedient Humble Servant,

THOMAS JEFFERSON.