[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:08.40,0:00:10.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sometime in the early 1750s,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:10.65,0:00:13.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a 22-year-old man named\NBenjamin Banneker
Dialogue: 0,0:00:13.97,0:00:17.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,sat industriously carving cogs\Nand gears out of wood.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:17.82,0:00:20.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He pieced the parts together
Dialogue: 0,0:00:20.05,0:00:22.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to create the complex inner working\Nof a striking clock
Dialogue: 0,0:00:22.69,0:00:26.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that would, hopefully, \Nchime every hour.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:26.08,0:00:29.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All he had to help him was \Na pocket watch for inspiration
Dialogue: 0,0:00:29.80,0:00:32.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and his own calculations.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:32.11,0:00:34.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And yet, his careful engineering worked.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:34.83,0:00:38.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Striking clocks had already been\Naround for hundreds of years,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:38.79,0:00:42.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but Banneker's may have been\Nthe first created in America,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:42.90,0:00:46.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it drew fascinated visitors from\Nacross the country.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:46.60,0:00:48.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In a show of his brilliance,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:48.11,0:00:53.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the clock continued to chime\Nfor the rest of Banneker's life.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:53.17,0:00:57.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Born in 1731 to freed slaves\Non a farm in Baltimore, Maryland,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:57.22,0:00:58.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,from his earliest days,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:58.63,0:01:01.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the young Banneker was obsessed\Nwith math and science.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:01.82,0:01:06.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And his appetite for knowledge only grew\Nas he taught himself astronomy,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:06.49,0:01:07.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,mathematics,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:07.85,0:01:08.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,engineering,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:08.93,0:01:11.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the study of the natural world.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:11.62,0:01:14.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As an adult, he used astronomy\Nto accurately predict
Dialogue: 0,0:01:14.61,0:01:16.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,lunar and solar events,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:16.80,0:01:19.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,like the solar eclipse of 1789,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:19.75,0:01:24.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and even applied his mathematical skills\Nto land use planning.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:24.34,0:01:28.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,These talents caught the eye of a local\NBaltimore businessman, Andrew Ellicott,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:28.59,0:01:32.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who was also the Surveyor General\Nof the United States.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:32.63,0:01:35.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Recognizing Banneker's skills in 1791,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:35.82,0:01:39.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Ellicott appointed him as an assistant\Nto work on a prestigious new project,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:39.93,0:01:43.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,planning the layout \Nof the nation's capitol.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:43.24,0:01:47.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Meanwhile, Banneker turned \Nhis brilliant mind to farming.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:47.10,0:01:51.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He used his scientific expertise\Nto pioneer new agricultural methods
Dialogue: 0,0:01:51.47,0:01:54.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on his family's tobacco farm.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:54.13,0:01:56.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,His fascination with the natural world
Dialogue: 0,0:01:56.10,0:02:00.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,also led to a study on the plague\Nlife cycle of locusts.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:00.95,0:02:05.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Then in 1792, Banneker \Nbegan publishing almanacs.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:05.32,0:02:09.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,These provided detailed annual information\Non moon and sun cycles,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:09.99,0:02:11.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,weather forecasts,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:11.30,0:02:14.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and planting and tidal time tables.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:14.60,0:02:17.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Banneker sent a handwritten copy\Nof his first almanac
Dialogue: 0,0:02:17.37,0:02:20.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to Virginia's Secretary of State\NThomas Jefferson.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:20.99,0:02:24.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This was a decade before Jefferson\Nbecame president.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:24.34,0:02:27.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Banneker included a letter imploring\NJefferson to
Dialogue: 0,0:02:27.21,0:02:29.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"embrace every opportunity to eradicate
Dialogue: 0,0:02:29.95,0:02:33.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that train of absurd \Nand false ideas and opinions"
Dialogue: 0,0:02:33.07,0:02:36.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that caused prejudice \Nagainst black people.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:36.17,0:02:40.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Jefferson read the almanac and wrote\Nback in praise of Banneker's work.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:40.31,0:02:42.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Banneker's correspondence with \Nthe future president
Dialogue: 0,0:02:42.86,0:02:45.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is now considered to be one of the first\Ndocumented examples
Dialogue: 0,0:02:45.98,0:02:49.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of a civil rights \Nprotest letter in America.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:49.16,0:02:51.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For the rest of his life,\Nhe fought for this cause,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:51.71,0:02:56.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,sharing his opposition to slavery\Nthrough his writing.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:56.14,0:02:58.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In 1806 at the age of 75,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:58.64,0:03:02.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Banneker died after a lifetime\Nof study and activism.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:02.57,0:03:05.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,On the day of his funeral,\Nhis house mysteriously burned down,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:05.90,0:03:07.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the majority of his life's work,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:07.84,0:03:11.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,including his striking clock, \Nwas destroyed.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:11.33,0:03:13.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But still, his legacy lives on.