Great watchmakers have been few and far between in history, horology was very rarely the main field of a scientist, especially in the 18th and 19th century. Moreover, much development in horology was happening in Europe at this time, not America.
As collectors, I imagine many of us have tried tinkering with our own watches in the past…with varying degrees of success. So, what if I told you that one man, back in the 18th century, built a wooden striking clock himself…with having ever seen a clock before?
Benjamin Banneker is that man. He was born a free person of colour near Baltimore in 1731, when American was still a colony under the British crown and American colonies (cities like Baltimore) were often raided by Native Americans.
There are two versions of the story regarding Benjamin Banneker’s background but one is generally accepted over the other. The first comes from Martha Ellicott Tyson, who says that while Banneker’s father was a native African, brought to America as a slave; his mother was of English descent, the daughter of a lower-class English woman who had come to America and purchased two slaves. One of which was an African prince who she fell in love with and eventually married. In this case, Banneker’s mother would’ve them been mixed with English ancestry.
Baltimore, 1752 / Credit: Maryland Historical Society
However, Benjamin Banneker is known and remembered for having been 100% of African descent, and this was very important as he was often used as a point of evidence when debating whether or not African-Americans could be as intelligent as European-Americans. Thomas Jefferson himself notes that, ““[Benjamin was the] son of a black man born in African and a black woman born in the United States.”
As a side note, it is worth mentioning that colonial slavery practices were much different than those of the Antebellum era. During colonial times, especially in the 17th and early 18th centuries, there was a large population of indentured European immigrants who were almost of the same class as slaves. It is under this system that Benjamin’s mother and father were able to come to own a farm that Benjamin would eventually inherit and divide with his sisters.
Unlike many young men of the time, Benjamin did not take much to sports and outdoor activities, instead dedicating his time to studying, reading, and helping his father with farm work to pass the time in his youth – taking to mathematics in particular. It was around this time, in Benjamin’s youth, that a man name George Ellicott (supposedly of relation to the aforementioned Martha Ellicott Tyson), moved from Philadelphia to become Banneker’s neighbour. This was also unusual for the time, but you can imagine that Ellicott, being from progressive Philadelphia, may have held ‘unorthodox’ views on race relations.
Now, Benjamin’s only true connection to horology happened in his youth, in 1953 around the age of 21, when he built his first and only clock; a wooden striking clock. This is the clock that he famously built without having ever seen a clock before – and that lasted over 50 years, even after his own death.
Sketch of a striking clock
When Benjamin’s father died in 1759, Benjamin was left to tend to their 100-acre farm.
Despite this event in his life, his relationship with Ellicott had already taken a turn after building the clock! Ellicott, seeing the young man’s potential, started to lend him books and tutor him. This famously turned into Banneker not only completing his reading but finding mistakes in the books and correcting them, leading him to explore writing him own.
And that’s exactly what he did next, Banneker wrote his first almanac and even sent an early version to Thomas Jefferson with a letter in 1791! In this letter he expressed his disdain at how African-Americans were regarded, particularly in intellectual fields, using himself as a counterexample to what mainstream views people held. Remarkably, Jefferson, then Secretary of State, not only replied to Banneker – initiating their correspondence – but also forwarded his almanac to the French Academy in Paris.
You can imagine that this incident and his other successes made Banneker a bit of a celebrity. He continued to publish almanacs throughout the 1790s, selling them for around $80 each.
America was now an independent country after having defeating the British in their war for independence. The idea to create a new capital, Washington, D.C. that was in between both Northern and Southern states, was solidified politically. As such, George Washington saw that a team of scientists and engineers was put together to design the future capital of the new nation. One of those people was Benjamin Banneker.
Original plans for Washington, D.C., 1791 by Pierre Charles L’Enfant / Credit: William T. Patridge
‘City of Washington’, 1792 / Credit: Library of Congress
His time as a surveyor is generally seen as a success, although one strange aspect of it did stand out. In general, it can be said that Banneker, at least in regards to his professional career, was well-received considering the times. It is reported that, although being invited by the rest of his colleagues to sit with them for dinner, Banneker always refused preferring to sit in the same room at a separate table. Apart from this, his rapport with his colleagues seems to have been perfectly cordial. I believe he behaved this way for one of two reasons: either Banneker was too uncomfortable to break the social norm of the time, for that refused to sit with his white colleagues; or it was merely an invitation out of politeness – not sincere – and Banneker was adept enough to see this and correctly decline the invitation. Either way it is one of the few times that his race really came into question in his professional life. He was always seen as an ‘example’ or ‘exception’.
Benjamin Banneker died not long after these latest developments in his career, in 1806. In many ways, Banneker is much like other horologists who we so admire from the same time period. In that, they oftentimes had very little to do with clock or watchmaking and focused most of their work on mathematics or astronomy – with horology being a sort of coincidence. In Banneker’s case, he had his almanacs.
And so, Benjamin Banneker is remembered not only for his fascinating ability to have made a well-built, long-lasting clock on a whim, but for having been a renowned scientist –mathematician, astronomer; author, and more. It’s only too bad he never met Breguet in London like John Arnold!
By: Andres Ibarguen
Benjamin Banneker / Credit: Western Illinois University
Read more:
Ellicott Tyson, Martha. "Banneker, the Afric-American Astronomer." Friend’s Review: A Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal, Vol. 37, 1884.
Baker, Henry E. "Benjamin Banneker, the Negro Mathematician and Astronomer." The Journal of African American History, formerly The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1918.
LaTrobe, John H. B. “Memoir of Benjamin Banneker – Read Before the Maryland Historical Society at the Monthly Meeting.” Maryland Historical Society, 1845.
Bedini, Silvio A. The life of Benjamin Banneker. Baltimore, Maryland Historical Society, 1999. (Bedini has generally written extensively on the subject.)
Bedini, Silvio A. Early Scientific Instruments and Their Makers. Washington, D.C., United States National Museum Bulletin, 1964.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Benjamin Banneker.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benjamin-Banneker.