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Sometime in the early 1750s,
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a 22-year-old man named
Benjamin Banneker
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sat industriously carving cogs
and gears out of wood.
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He pieced the parts together
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to create the complex inner working
of a striking clock
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that would, hopefully,
chime every hour.
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All he had to help him was
a pocket watch for inspiration
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and his own calculations.
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And yet, his careful engineering worked.
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Striking clocks had already been
around for hundreds of years,
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but Banneker's may have been
the first created in America,
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and it drew fascinated visitors from
across the country.
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In a show of his brilliance,
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the clock continued to chime
for the rest of Banneker's life.
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Born in 1731 to freed slaves
on a farm in Baltimore, Maryland,
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from his earliest days,
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the young Banneker was obsessed
with math and science.
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And his appetite for knowledge only grew
as he taught himself astronomy,
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mathematics,
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engineering,
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and the study of the natural world.
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As an adult, he used astronomy
to accurately predict
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lunar and solar events,
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like the solar eclipse of 1789,
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and even applied his mathematical skills
to land use planning.
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These talents caught the eye of a local
Baltimore businessman, Andrew Ellicott,
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who was also the Surveyor General
of the United States.
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Recognizing Banneker's skills in 1791,
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Ellicott appointed him as an assistant
to work on a prestigious new project,
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planning the layout
of the nation's capitol.
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Meanwhile, Banneker turned
his brilliant mind to farming.
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He used his scientific expertise
to pioneer new agricultural methods
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on his family's tobacco farm.
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His fascination with the natural world
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also led to a study on the plague
lifecycle of locusts.
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Then in 1792, Banneker
began publishing almanacs.
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These provided detailed annual information
on moon and sun cycles,
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weather forcasts,
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and planting and tidal time tables.
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Banneker sent a handwritten copy
of his first almanac
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to Virginia's Secretary of State,
Thomas Jefferson.
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This was a decade before Jefferson
became president.
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Banneker included a letter imploring
Jefferson to,
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"embrace every opportunity to eradicate
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that train of absurd
and false ideas and opinions"
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that caused prejudice
against black people.
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Jefferson read the almanac and wrote
back in praise of Banneker's work.
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Banneker's correspondence with
the future president
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is now considered to be one of the first
documented examples
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of a Civil Rights
protest letter in America.
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For the rest of his life,
he fought for this cause,
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sharing his opposition to slavery
through his writing.
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In 1806 at the age of 75,
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Banneker died after a lifetime
of study and activism.
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On the day of his funeral,
his house mysteriously burned down,
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and the majority of his life's work,
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including his striking clock,
was destroyed.
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But still, his legacy lives on.