This Almanac Hiding an Embarrassing Question for Thomas Jefferson

On August 19, 1791, Benjamin Banneker sent Thomas Jefferson an almanac with a letter. This free black man, trained in mathematics and astronomy, does not simply ask for an appreciation of his calculations. He confronts his correspondent with a contradiction: how to defend freedom while keeping human beings in slavery?

Jefferson had expressed prejudices about the intellectual abilities of black people. The work of Banneker is therefore also a concrete answer. In his letter of August 30, Jefferson praised his talents and announced that he had transmitted the almanac to Condorcet, France. The scientific paper became an intervention in a political debate.

This polite response, however, does not produce the expected transformation. The Library of Congress points out that Jefferson is not providing the requested help and will again express doubts about Banneker. Correspondence, republished, thus preserves two stories at once: that of a demonstration of knowledge and that of a moral objection that has remained without a real sequel.