Benjamin Banneker: End Slavery Now!

Hello everyone. I'm your host Jermaine Fowler and welcome to The Humanity Archive podcast. In this episode, I have a story from history that is very rarely told, at least not in the way that I'm going to tell it. It's the story of Benjamin Banneker and there's a shocker to this story because Benjamin Banneker was a free Black man living in 18th century America and you don't hear about many free Black people during the 18th century because there weren't that many free Black people in America in the 18th century. And this is important to our story because American slavery was in full force.

Now Banneker was born on November 9th, 1731 and he was born free. Yet even though he was born free, even though he learned to read and write, even though he owned land and even though he was exceptionally intelligent in math and in science, he could not escape the dishonoring, the devaluing, and the dehumanizing of Black people in America. And he had a fascinating life! Boy, let me tell you! But even though he had this fascinating life, I rediscovered him through a letter and it was a letter that he wrote to Thomas Jefferson.

Yes, thee Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State at the time that Banneker wrote to him, future president. And the crux and the core of this story is going to be about how Benjamin Banneker wrote a letter making a case for Jefferson to help end slavery. And again, this is very important because perhaps this letter was the first time a Black man boldly claimed his right to free speech, directly challenged a high ranking white government official and did so with a swaggering confidence. This sort of thing was unheard of in the 18th century. Banneker was the root of a tree which would spring forth many branches. One of the forefathers of this long line of Black people with such a love of freedom and a hatred for slavery that they were willing to risk their own fragile freedom for the liberation of other Black people.

Who would come after him? Well, the Phillis Wheatley's, the William Still's, the Henry Bib's, the Frederick Douglass's. This is the lineage and line of free Black people either born free or who gain their freedom, who would stand up to fight for black liberation. Him and others like him would attempt to negotiate the release of millions of slaves. Showing that diplomatic pressure can be a forceful weapon. You don't always have to have a gun. And unfortunately though, for Banneker, that pressure would have to be applied for over 100 more years. And before we get started I just wanted to let you ponder this quote by James Baldwin, he says, "the paradox of education is precisely this, that as one begins to become conscious, one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated."

Benjamin Banneker was conscious and this is how he applied that consciousness through this letter to Thomas Jefferson. And in this episode we're going to explore that. We're going to pick that apart. We're going to examine that in all its implications in early American society and how that played out and how that ties into today. So stick with me. We're going to have a fascinating story, but as always in sticking with the theme of these last several podcasts, we're going to see how someone questioned injustice. I'm Jermaine Fowler once again and we are about to go into this next Humanity Archive podcast entitled Benjamin Banneker: End Slavery Now. Let's get into it!

Benjamin Banneker was born in 1731, a free Black man in a slave society in Baltimore County, Maryland. He grew up in the rapidly changing times. Seeing America transformed from a British colony into a rebellious militia during the Revolutionary War and then finally into its own democratic nation. As a farmer, an amateur astronomer, a mathematician, an author, Banneker was an accomplished citizen under any circumstances but even more so as a Black man, when navigating the human bondage and extreme racism of the 18th century in America.

Now Banneker learned many of his skills through a relationship with a Quaker family named the Ellicotts with whom he became a land surveyor. And I think it's important to note that the Quakers were some of the first white anti-slavery groups in America, far from the buttoned up image of the guy on the oatmeal box that you see. We're not talking about Quaker oats here. I think in the Black community there is sometimes this idea that Black people had a monopoly on resistance to slavery and oppression. We talk a lot about the vicious legacies of white supremacy and slavery and rightfully so, but there were also many white people who made themselves a part of that struggle.

So there were those like John Woolman who spearheaded the early rebuke of slavery. By the end of the 18th century, slave holding had ceased among Quakers, a very long time before it would end for anyone else. So this is the type of connection Banneker had. We've got to look at his connections because by associating with the Quakers and their religious rebelliousness, this could have lifted up the spirit of rebellion within him and tying into his resistance to slavery and this whole freedom movement. So when a lot of people think of Benjamin Banneker, they may know him because of the story of him assisting with the layout of the nation's capital in Washington, D. C.

And I was troubled to find out that with no real evidence the legend has it that Benjamin Banneker single handedly laid out and developed the plans for Washington D. C. himself with no help. And this is the popular narrative in a lot of circles and even in the mainstream media. The Washington Post published the story citing this as fact and this is part of his mythology and it's probably untrue. But it made me wonder, why do people embellish history? Why would someone take a man like Banneker with the real moral and professional greatness and then exaggerate a story with things uncertain.

Why do we embellish historical figures in general? Maybe in this case there is something to prove. Black people have latched on to great figures to prove competence and to prove value. Maybe it really was thought to be the truth. Mark Twain once said, "never let the truth get in the way of a good story." So who knows, but let me digress from here, because for all of Banneker's real accomplishments, our story is about Banneker as a challenger. A man who had the audacity to write a public letter of courteous condemnation to the powerfully influential Thomas Jefferson. When the letter was written in 1791, Jefferson was not yet president but Secretary of State.

Still highly powerful and highly influential as the leader of foreign policy. So he had already written the Declaration of Independence at this point, with the famous lines, "we hold these truths to be self-evident. All men are created equal." These words are already penned when this letter was going to get written by Banneker. And maybe Banneker noticed that these words directly contradicted the deeply entrenched roots of slavery and racism in American society. And Banneker was determined to have a word about it. Now Thomas Jefferson is placed on an almost saint-like status as one of the golden founding fathers of America.

Like a mob boss, he has been historically untouchable. Like he can get away with whatever he wants and you can't say anything about Jefferson because he basically formed this democracy that allows us to live the lives that we live in America. So leave him alone. But we're not gonna do that in this episode. We get to go ahead and turn over some leaves, turn over some stones, and ruffle some feathers because Thomas Jefferson wasn't that great of a guy in a lot of regards. But let's hear a little bit of praise for him just so we can kind of see what we're dealing with and the kind of pedestal that they put him on. This is some praise and this comes in 1994 by David McCullough.

He's got a lot of famous books out. He's a bestseller on history in literature. McCullough says this, "all honor to Jefferson in our own world now in 1994. We can never know enough about him. Indeed we may judge our own performance and how seriously and with what effect we take his teachings to heart. When he wrote the Declaration of Independence, he was speaking to the world then, but speaking to us also across time. The ideas are transcendent. As is so much else that is bedrock to what we believe as a people, what we stand for, so many principles that have their origins here with the mind and spirit of Jefferson."

There are countless, countless other quotes lauding and praising and and applauding Thomas Jefferson because of his role in founding our American democracy. But I did find an opposite view that I wanted to share. One that paints Jefferson as a monster. And this is by historian Paul Finkelman. He says this about Thomas Jefferson, "the third president was a creepy, brutal hypocrite. Jefferson was always deeply committed to slavery and even more deeply hostile to the welfare of Blacks, slave or free.

His pro slavery views were shaped not only by money and status, but also his deeply racist views which he tried to justify through pseudo-science. When he wrote the Declaration of Independence announcing the self-evident truth that all men were created equal, he owned some 175 slaves. He sometimes punished slaves by selling them away from their families. And while he wrote a friend that he sold slaves only as punishment or to unite families, he sold at least 85 humans in a 10 year period to raise cash to buy wine, art, and other luxury goods." So it's important to balance these two views of Thomas Jefferson, to see these two sides of Thomas Jefferson, to flip the coin back and forth, heads or tails, which Thomas Jefferson do you believe in?

Most people flip heads, just like the nickel showing the head of Thomas Jefferson, but for all Jefferson's noble ideas of liberty and universal rights, Banneker must have been scratching his head in confusion about all the unequal treatment and the conditions of Black people who at this point really weren't considered Americans. They weren't even considered people. Now did Jefferson mean all white men were created equal? How could the same man who wrote this own so many slaves, sell so many slaves? Then get this, Jefferson watches one of his own enslaved people grow up from an infant and then he starts sexually abusing her.

Sorry if I trigger anyone with that but we always have to be real about the history that we're dealing with. It's not always pretty. She was only 14 years old and her name was Sally Hemings. He was 44 years old and I was shocked to read about slaves so vulnerable to every type of abuse imaginable. As I was researching, I read so many articles calling Sally Hemings and Jefferson saying it was a master and slave dynamic. A lot of articles on a lot of blogs and in a lot of videos, people were calling this a relationship. As if to say this was some consensual relationship between two equal human beings who chose to be together.

And I thought, wow! This is crazy! Like this was not a relationship. No slave and master dynamic could ever be a relationship. For one, Hemings is naïve, she's vulnerable, she's a kid. She's got to be scared. So I'll make my point again clear, there were no relationships between masters and slaves, only abuse and forced concubinage. Love and relationships are based on equality. You cannot have a relationship when one person has all the power and he even had children with her and he kept them all enslaved too. Looking at himself through the eyes of his children one wonders how Jefferson was able to sleep at night.

This is the Jefferson we don't hear about. And when I read about him, I often wonder how could this bright and brilliant man have such a pitch black character. Brilliance and ethics and morals don't always coincide now do they? So now let's get into Banneker's letter. Now I did want to just kind of paint a picture, a different picture of Jefferson and just imagine that Banneker is writing a letter to this Jefferson, this slave owner, the slave holder, the slave seller. And he wrote this letter in 1791 and Banneker, essentially, he's asking Jefferson to treat Black people equally and live up to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.

Now the correspondence starts with the utmost courtesy and then it quickly firms in tone with an unflinching backbone, Banneker openly questions America's slavery policy. So he starts off with this kind respect. He acknowledges Jefferson in this high standing place as Secretary of State. And then it takes a sharp turn, exposing the prejudice and discrimination. And I just want to give a disclaimer because writing was way different back in the 18th century. So long sentences and they didn't really use commas a lot. So if you see me gasping for breath as I read this, then you know why. But I'm going to read little snippets of Banneker's quote. I'll give my commentary and we're going to go through this.

So Banneker first says, "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."

So I'll stop there real quick and just kind of talk about how Banneker addresses how Black people are fighting false assumptions. This is when people have presupposed thoughts, prevailing ideas about Black people, pseudoscience. There were scientists during this time who measured skulls for instance of Black people and said their skulls were smaller, therefore they did not have the mental capacity of white people. This is what Banneker is speaking to. Or people who would say Black people haven't accomplished anything. They can't be smart. They can't be human, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So you had these lines of thinking that were very prevalent in America.

And this is what Banneker is speaking to. How many times do you assess someone negatively based on what they look like? How many of us have had our humanity ignored because of an association with a particular group? Maybe it's Black or Mexican or a woman or poor and white, a Muslim, the list goes on and on. America at that time had false assumptions of Black inferiority and this had to be regularly visible to Banneker and he writes:

"sir, I hope I may safely admit in consequence of that report which hadth reach me, that you are a man far less inflexible in sentiments of this nature than many others, that you are measurably friendly and well disposed toward us. And that you are willing and ready to lend your aid and assistance to our relief from those many distresses and numerous calamities to which we are reduced. Now sir, if this is founded in truth, I apprehend you will readily embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions which so generally prevails with the respect to us and that your sentiments are concurrent with mine, which are that one universal father hath given being to all of us. And that he hath not only made us of one flesh, but that he hath also, without partiality, afforded us all the same sensations and endowed us all with the same faculties and that however variable we may be in society or religion, however, diversified in situation or color, we are all of the same family and stand in the same in relation to him."

Now the word human brotherhood or human sisterhood really struck me when I read this section because I think it's an old idea that we see so much disconnection, even now on race and separation fueled by gender. And I wonder if it's a utopian idea to even think that we can all coexist under this universal brotherhood and sisterhood idea, or could we move closer to it even. But I also wonder if Banneker had read some of Jefferson's quotes or words because it doesn't seem like a secret that Jefferson has this reputation for not really liking slavery. At least publicly he says that he doesn't really know what to do with it.

So he wastes no time and he essentially tells Jefferson, if you truly believe in your sacred ideas of liberty, if what they say about you is true, you'll fight for the emancipation of Black people. Anything short of this is gross hypocrisy. This is a question then not of Jefferson's brilliance as a statesman, or a visionary, or a writer, or a leader but a question of his integrity. Banneker is raising the question, he's bearing witness and he's saying are you going to be honest? Are you going to be uncompromising in your commitment to truth, to moral principle, to the ethical values of which you speak? And he says, "sir, I have long been convinced that if your love for yourselves and for those inestimable laws, which preserve you the rights of human nature was founded on sincerity, you could not be solicitous that every individual of whatsoever rank or distinction might with you equally enjoy the blessings thereof.

Neither could you rest satisfied short of the most active diffusions 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." All of that to say, you couldn't be satisfied by how Black people were being treated and then being in a slavery condition if you believe what you say you believe. Now Banneker does something smart next. He's going to use the historical memory to draw a parallel between the state of bondage of American revolutionaries to the British crown, because the Revolutionary War was early Americans saying that they were in a state of slavery so to speak, under the heel of the crown of Britain.

And they started this revolutionary war to free themselves. So Banneker is going to try to tie this in with slavery in saying that can't you relate to us? You were just in a similar position and this is a logical appeal that he tries to make. And he says, "sir, suffer me to recall 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. Look back, I interest you, on the variety of dangers to which you were exposed. Reflect on that time in which every human aid appeared unavailable and in which even hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the conflict and you cannot be but led to a serious and grateful sense of your miraculous and providential preservation.

You cannot but acknowledge that the present freedom and tranquility which you enjoy, you have mercifully received and that it is the peculiar blessing of heaven. It is now, sir, that your accordance thereof wasn't so excited." And then we go on a little deeper into the letter and Banneker is going to boldly scold Jefferson. Further outline his hypocrisy. Again he calls for empathy and he's calling for Jefferson to feel as we feel, see as we see, imagine what it's like again. So this is an appeal to Black suffering, to Black experience, not some surface experience like going to a restaurant and saying the food is good. No, he's talking about not some cheap amusement park experience, but this is a deep experience that Banneker is trying to connect to.

When he's trying to persuade Jefferson, he's trying to touch his soul. Banneker's pen bleeds with the life and death urgency of what it means to be a Black person in America under such catastrophe of slavery or near slavery. And this may be his most persuasive passage yet. He says, "here sir was a time in which your tender feelings for yourselves had engaged you thus to declare you were then impressed with proper ideas of the great valuation of liberty and the free possession of those blessings to which you were entitled by nature.

But sir, how pittable is it to reflect that although you are 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 and detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren and 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. Sir, I suppose that your knowledge of the situation of my brethren is too extensive to need recital here.

Neither shall I presume to prescribe methods by which they may be relieved, otherwise than by recommending to you and all others to wean yourselves from these narrow prejudices, which you have imbibed with respect to them. And as Job proposed to his friends, put your souls in their souls stead, thus your hearts be enlarged with kindness and benevolence toward them. And thus, shall you need neither the direction of myself or others in what manner to proceed herein." Wow! I told you the pen was bleeding in that passage. Banneker poured his heart out in that passage.

Trying to persuade, trying to implore, trying to convince Jefferson to have a heart, to release his slaves. Fight with his power and prestige and influence to end this institution, in the forming Congress of the United States. This was Banneker's plea. Banneker recognized the deep divisions between the Declaration of Independence and the horrible enslavement of Black people in America and he had the courage to write about it. He wrote with all the sincerity and hope that Jefferson would actually do something about the problem. That he could connect with Jefferson through logic or through showing this massive amount of suffering to Jefferson or connecting with some empathy, some humanity with Jefferson in this letter.

You can feel his heartbeat through his words. An impassioned plea that Jefferson would use his powers for the greater good of humankind but Jefferson would do no such thing. Such a disappointment. His response to Banneker was short. It was dismissive. And essentially he says that Black people would have to prove they are equal in society before he will give them the fair shake as free human beings. It wreaks of racism. With the profound sense of entitlement he says he wants nothing more but Black people must prove their equality. Here's Thomas Jefferson when he says in his response, "sir, I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th and for the Almanac it contained.

Nobody 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 other colors of men and that they appear in civil want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa and America. I can add with truth that nobody wishes more ardently to see a good system commence for raising the condition, both of their body and mind to what it ought to be. As fast as the imbecility of their present existence and other circumstances which can not be neglected will admit."

Moment of silence. Moment of silence. I mean Thomas Jefferson hears this impassioned plea, this appeal to logic, all this reasoning and he says Black people literally have to prove that they can be members of society. That they aren't brutes. That they are human. That they have mental strength, mental capacity to make it in this form of democracy that they created. Members only. And those members are all white men. What could have been different had Jefferson actually listened to this letter?

Felt this letter? Done something about this letter? And fought and used his power and influence to end the institution of slavery back in the early 18th century? My heart pours out right now thinking about such a missed opportunity, such a missed chance and all of the people who had to suffer because of this neglect by Jefferson. They didn't listen to Benjamin Banneker. Wow! How history could have been different. How our American democracy could have been different. How our lives and my ancestors and your ancestors lives could have been different.

But they wouldn't be. They would have to suffer longer. Sad, sad story you all. I'm going to leave it on that note. Sorry to leave it on a sad note but that is the story. Jefferson would not listen. And you know the rest. Slavery would go on for another hundred plus years and then another a hundred plus years of fighting against Jim Crow and civil rights and so on and so forth. And here we are now with mass incarceration and all the things that are still playing out, affecting Black people, people of color to this day that are extensions of slavery. But there is always hope.

There's always hope for a brighter day. And as long as we can continue to nurture this democracy and have these dialogues and these critical conversations and I can put out shows like this and we can have forums and places where people can go to talk and just kind of put out their thoughts and ideas to be examined, to be taken apart and then put back together as a better us, as a better humanity, as better Americans, where we can come closer together. That is the hope. And we're going to leave that on a hopeful note today. I want to thank you so much for tuning in and listening to The Humanity Archive podcast. I'm your gracious host again, Jermaine Fowler and if you want to know how you can support me, here's how.

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