Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot - Hardcover

by Charles A. Cerami (Author)

The first biography of a major figure in early US and African American history

A household name and unparalleled hero revered in every African American household, Benjamin Banneker was a completely self-taught mathematical genius who achieved professional status in astronomy, navigation, and engineering. His acknowledged expertise and superior surveying skills led to his role as coworker with the Founding Fathers in planning our nation's capitol, Washington, DC. His annual Banneker's Almanac was the first written by a black and outsold the major competition. In addition, he was a vocal force in the fight for the abolition of slavery. Yet, despite his accomplishments, there has been no biography of this important man--until now. Written by an author with strong ties across the Washington-Maryland-Virginia area where abolitionist societies revered Banneker, this long overdue biography at last gives the hard-earned attention this prominent hero and his accomplishments deserve.

Front Jacket

Benjamin Banneker

A name revered in virtually every African American household, Benjamin Banneker is remembered as the black farmer who surveyed the land on which the nation's capitol was built and who wrote an explosive, much-publicized letter to Thomas Jefferson, accusing him and the other Founding Fathers of going back on their pledge to preserve the self-evident rights of all its people. But, as Charles Cerami shows in this fascinating biography, while those two accomplishments were indeed remarkable, they only hint at the true scope of Banneker's genius.

Benjamin Banneker was born in rural Maryland in 1731, the descendent of slaves. Early on, he demonstrated extraordinary mathematical and analytical abilities, along with a photographic memory. Between twelve-hour shifts on the family farm, young Banneker, without the benefit of formal schooling and with little more than a handful of borrowed texts as his guide, achieved excellence as a mathematician and astronomer, and honed an elegant writing style on par with the finest writers of his day. Later in life, his self-taught expertise as a surveyor led to his playing a pivotal role in planning Washington, D.C. And his "Banneker's Almanac," first appearing in 1791 and continuing as a bestseller for years after, was celebrated for the accuracy of the celestial movements it provided navigators and its weather forecasts, as well as its humorous anecdotes, philosophical essays, and extraordinarily fine prose and poetry.

But Banneker's most remarkable achievements were in the field of astronomy. Long before the Hubble Orbiting Telescope, he hypothesized that the unusual changes in the light coming from Sirius, the Dog Star, could be attributed to the now established fact that it is actually two stars in orbit around one another. More than a century before technology enabled astronomers to confirm that many stars are circled by planets, Banneker wrote of "extra-solar" planets that were probably inhabited by sentient beings. And his speculations about light and the relative nature of time anticipated Einstein's thinking by more than a century.

"Benjamin Banneker" is the long-overdue biography of a true American hero and a scientific genius of the first order, and the first step in securing for its subject the place in history he undoubtedly deserves.

Back Jacket

Advance praise for "Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot"

"Herein breathes the universal genius Benjamin Banneker -- mathematician, astronomer, diarist, and sage.

Biographer Charles Cerami mines the available data, eschews the apocryphal, and renders his subject human. Captured completely is the flowering genius of a largely home-schooled boy wonder, exhibiting mathematical wizardry while devouring the Bible, Plato, Epictetus, and virtually every other extant tome. The fabled memory that could have reproduced L'Enfant's plan for the entire District of Columbia becomes palpable and real.

We understand how the pragmatic farmer who was imbued with Quaker ideology endured decades of ignominious racism with overt equanimity while haunted by incessant night terrors. We comprehend the heroism of the man whose very existence refuted Thomas Jefferson's notorious public denial of black intellect in Notes on Virginia when, speaking truth to power, Banneker launched an anti-slavery epistle at the ambivalent and duplicitous Jefferson. We are enraged at the account of arsonists setting fire on the day of Banneker's funeral to the small, rustic log cabin where the genius had labored in solitude among his instruments, papers, and books. We are grateful to Charles Cerami, who has resurrected the spirit of a neglected giant and gifted us with a biography nearly two centuries overdue."
--Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO, NAACP

"Like Benjamin Banneker, Charles Cerami presents the product of his research in a modest yet compelling manner. Cerami engagingly writes about both Banneker the genius and Banneker the man-a thought-provoking read."
--Raymond G. Dobard, Ph.D., Professor of Art, Howard University, and coauthor of "Hidden in Plain View: A Secret story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad"

Author Biography

CHARLES A. CERAMI is a former principal editor of the Kiplinger Washington Publications and an economist who has written extensively for the "Atlantic Monthly," the "New York Times Magazine," "Playboy," "Parade," and other leading publications. He is the author of ten books, including "Successful Leadership in Business"; "Alliance Born of Danger"; "More Profit, Less Risk"; and "A Marshall Plan for the 1990s."