August 20, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Tuesday, August 19.
Benjamin Banneker is a name that, largely, has faded into history. But the story of a letter that he wrote has not faded. It remains an example of the courage it takes to speak truth to power. On August 19, 1791, Banneker sat down and wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson.
Born in Baltimore in 1731, of an African immigrant father and a mother who was a freed slave, Benjamin showed early interest and ability in mathematics and astronomy and writing. He was basically self-taught, but rose to become a publisher of successful almanacs and a surveyor. It was in the latter role that he was engaged in 1791 in plotting the boundaries of a new federal district, the District of Columbia. His employer was the Secretary of State, a man named Thomas Jefferson.
After completing his job, Banneker sent a letter to Jefferson, his boss, and one of the most powerful and influential men in America. The letter debated the issue of slavery, and in his argument Banneker cited Jefferson’s own words, written 15 years earlier - “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Thomas Jefferson was not only the writer of the Declaration of Independence, he was also an owner of slaves.
Jefferson wrote back, and his reply was cordial and respectful. But he avoided the hard issue, sidestepped it, as politicians sometimes do. A decade later Banneker was dead and Thomas Jefferson was the president. It would take another 50 years for slavery to be abolished in the United States, during the administration of a president who shares a place with Jefferson on Mount Rushmore. Benjamin Banneker’s letter seems to have had little effect on Jefferson or on history. But it remains as an example of the courage it takes to shed light on hypocrisy, and to speak truth to power.
As does this - “Woe to you, Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in the people’s faces!” (Matthew 23:13)
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
