Your most humble servant

From the dust jacket:

Benjamin Banneker was born the grandson of an African prince and an English servant girl. Without him, our nation's capital might never have been built. He revolutionized the science of astronomy. His famous Almanac molded the thought of the young American republic. Scientist, humanitarian, gentleman, he was the respected correspondent of Thomas Jefferson.

But this embattled man of greatness lived two startlingly different lives, simultaneously in two worlds. For on the very day when Major L'Enfant's plans for the city of Washington existed only in the brain of Benjamin Banneker, this Negro adviser of America's leaders was pursued by the border patrol as a runaway slave, forced to cringe and whine like the human chattel he had never been.

Banneker was strong enough to rebuke the great Jefferson in the ringing words of Jefferson's own Declaration of Independence ...and was respected enough to receive Jefferson's sorrowful apology for the continued existence of slavery. But Banneker the man was less privileged than Banneker the statesman. He loved only once, and almost succeeded in buying the freedom of his adored Anola ... until the man who owned her noticed her beauty for the first time, and took her for himself.

Without the genius of Benjamin Banneker, the daily life of men and women in America's early days would have been infinitely harder, far less filled with hope. When he died, his own country and even the great leaders of France and England paid him tribute. But, today no bronze plaque marks his memory. His work, and even his name, have been all but forgotten by the country he loved and served.

Now, at last, noted biographer Shirley Graham has brought him back to a place of honor in American hearts. In this dramatic book, his questioning mind, his thirst for justice, his love for all mankind, live again to guide and inspire the nation that today stands in need of the memory and courage of Benjamin Banneker, American.

Contents

Gentle Reader, p. xi
The Prologue, p. 3

PART ONE
As the Seasons Change
I. The District of Columbia, p. 5
II. A Small Landowner, p. 16
III. The Schoolmaster Finds a Pupil, p. 30
IV. The Road Outside, p. 47

PART TWO
The Heavens Declare the Glory
V. Benjamin Discovers Time, p. 67
VI. A Flaming Sign in the Heavens, p. 84
VII. To Grow Wheat in Maryland, p. 100
VIII. Yankee-Doodle Goes to Town, p. 114
IX. The Stars in Their Courses, p. 136

PART THREE
And the Firmament Shewth His Handywork
X. Mr. Jefferson Writes Two Letters, p. 155
XI. "Sir, I have the plans in my head", p. 163
XII. A Plan for Peace, p. 180
XIII. An Error in Calculations, p. 195
XIV. "I will lift up mine eyes", p. 206

The Epilogue, 1845 p. 217
Appendix, p. 219
Epitaph for a Watch-Maker, p. 225
Notes on Sources, p. 227

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From the back cover:

How I came to write YOUR MOST HUMBLE SERVANT...

"I asked my publishers to let me tell you how I came to write YOUR MOST HUMBLE SERVANT because I came across the story of Benjamin Banneker by accident--one of those fortunate accidents that sometimes befalls the researcher. I was working on my thesis for my Ph.D. for which I had chosen the subject of Anne Royall, "virago errant" of John Quincy Adams' Memoirs. Every now and then in my research I came across the name of Benjamin Banneker, and as the references to the man became more frequent, I became more and more curious about this Maryland Negro who was apparently a freeman and a landowner in the eighteenth century. Then, in checking old records about Anne Royalls' home which stood on what is now the site of the Library of Congress, I learned that Banneker was instrumental in laying out the city of Washington. he had helped survey it and had worked with Major L'Enfant on the plans. When the Major sailed for France, taking the plans with him, this amazing Banneker reconstructed them from memory for Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State. My curiosity was further whetted by references to Banneker's grandmother, an English dairy maid sent to the Colonies as a bondswoman, who had purchased two slaves, one of whom became her husband. Such marriages I was discovering were quite common in the early days of America--and the laws of Maryland declared the children of such marriages freeborn. This alone would have made me curious for I was unaware of the fact that the "color line" was less sharply drawn in Maryland during Washington's time than it was later in our history.

"The more I learned about Banneker, the more interested I became and I felt I just had to tell people about this unusual man who had also constructed one of the first clocks made in America and, who, without training, had written an accurate almanac from his own observations of the stars. In any time, in any period, Banneker would have been a remarkable man, but in his own time, when few men could read or write, his learning and his achievements were astonishing.

"I think I enjoyed writing Banneker's story far more than any other book I have written. I hope readers will find in it the same pleasurable thrill of discovery that I had when I first came upon his story in the archives of the Library of Congress."

--Shirley Graham