The exceptional life of Benjamin Banneker

Benjamin Banneker

(November 9, 1731 – October 9, 1806)

Benjamin Banneker was a free African American almanac author, surveyor, naturalist, and farmer. Born in Baltimore County, Maryland, to a free African American woman and a former slave, Banneker had little formal education and was largely self-taught. He is known for being part of a group led by Major Andrew Ellicott that surveyed the borders of the original District of Columbia, the federal capital district of the United States.