| Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) was a brilliant young man with an inquisitive mind. His father was a slave, but his mother was a free black woman. Banneker was free and was able to attend the local school. Early in his schooling, he showed an unusual talent for mathematics, but his interests ranged from bees and locusts to the stars in the heavens. Banneker read all the books he could borrow from friendly white neighbors. He built a wooden clock that kept accurate time for many years to come.
Banneker was a member of the surveying team appointed by Thomas Jefferson in 1790 to lay out the plans for the city of Washington and the District of Columbia. Once the site for the capital was chosen, Jefferson selected Pierre Charles L'Enfant as the chief planner and architect for the project. But the high-handed opportunist was dismissed in 1792 for insubordination and for forging ahead without orders. L'Enfant took off with all the detailed maps and plans, but all was not lost. Banneker was able to accurately reconstruct the plans from memory. His was probably a more sensible plan than L'Enfant's grand baroque one, which was reminiscent of Versailles or Paris. L'Enfant intended the District of Columbia and the city of Washington to be the capital of a vast empire, with the federal house and the residential palace having commanding views in all directions. |
