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(ALMANACS.) BANNEKER, BENJAMIN.
Bannaker’s (sic) Maryland,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina Almanack and
Ephemeris for the Year of Our Lord 1796.
Woodcut (“Anatomy of a Man’s Body”)
on page 3; 36 pages, 12mo. Original self-wrappers, sewn; light stain across the front page,
not affecting subsequent pages; penultimate leaves (33-34) unopened. Pages lightly and
evenly toned.
Baltimore: Philip Edwards et al., (1795)
[60,000/80,000]
AN EXCEPTIONAL COPY OF AN
EXTREMELY RARE AMERICAN
ALMANAC
.
Benjamin Banneker
(1731-1806), self-taught astro-
nomer, mathematician, surveyor,
farmer and herbalist, helped with
the survey of the Federal Territory
that was to become the grid of
Washington D.C. Encouraged by
his friends and neighbors the
Ellicotts, Banneker produced his
first “Almanack and Ephemeris”
in 1791. Just prior to its publica-
tion,Banneker sent out a manuscript
copy to Thomas Jefferson, with a
cover letter urging the abolition of
slavery, which he compared to the
state of the country before its sep-
aration from Great Britain. He
included a quote from Phillis
Wheatley. Jefferson replied to
Banneker and there followed a a
brief exchange in which Jefferson
stated that “nobody wishes more
than I do to see such proofs as
you exhibit that nature hath
given to our black brethren talents
equal to the other colors of men.”
However he seemed unimpressed
by Wheatley’s poetry. In short,
Jefferson maintained his belief
that blacks could occasionally pro-
duce someone of the intellect of
Phillis Wheatley, or Benjamin
Banneker, but that the race itself
was limited in its capabilities.
Provenance: descendants of the original owners, friends of the Ellicotts. Drake 2243, the scarcer of two
issues—with a corrected title-page, reading “Eighth Year of the Federal Government.” Not cited by
Evans; ESTC locates four copies, while OCLC locates only two.