October in African American ~ Benjamin Banneker

October 9, 1806 ~ Benjamin Banneker died on this day at the age of 74 in Baltimore, Maryland. Banneker was a noted mathematician, surveyor, and astronomer. He was the most famous Afican American of the colonial era.
Banneker was born Ellicott Mills in 1731, the son of a free mother, who purchased a slave and then married him-just as her white English-servant mother had done. While still in his 20s, Banneker built the first clock made in America. People traveled long distances to see his famous clock, made entirely of wood using only a pen knife, which worked accurately for 20 years.

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By Tiffani Addison