From: Anonymous Seven
Date: 2/23/00
Time: 2:54:39 PM
Remote Name: 155.247.59.29
Anonymous Seven History 67 Week Six Primary Source Assignment 1 Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Banneker, August 30, 1791 Benjamin Banneker, a black mathematician and surveyor living in Maryland wrote a strong letter to Thomas Jefferson on August 19, 1791. This letter expressed his feelings concerning Jefferson's slaveholding while claiming to stand as a "friend of liberty." Jefferson respectfully responded on August 30th explaining himself. Throughout the letter it is clear to see what the attitudes of white America were at the end of the eighteenth century. Blacks were seen as mentally and biologically inferior to whites. Jefferson's contradictory views of these beliefs are evident in his letter. Though Jefferson may not have been comfortable admitting it in public, it is clear in his letter to Banneker that he felt that blacks possessed mental capability and did not deserve the rotten treatment that they so often received. Not only did Jefferson refer to blacks as having "talent equal to those of the other colors of men", but he also sent Banneker's almanac to the secretary of the Royal Academy of Science in France. The secretary, Marquis de Condorcet was a strong supporter of racial equality. As Jefferson points out the "degraded condition of their existence" it is obvious that there are those who see that there is a major problem with the treatment of blacks. Jefferson's problem was that as a politician he was in the minority and freeing his slaves and fighting for their rights would not be very bright political strategy. The best thing Jefferson could do at this point in time was, as a man, acknowledge individual accomplishments and make his understanding the unfair practices known to blacks. As a secretary of state his hands were tied.