and that Jefferson had written a laudatory letter about
Banneker to none other than the Marquis de Condorcet,
an eminent French mathematician and abolitionist, spoke
volumes about Banneker���s status.
Both Banneker and Jefferson were products of the
18th century Enlightenment, learned and scientific. The
writings of both men, Jefferson with The Declaration of
Independence and Banneker with the progressive Almanac
bearing his name, offer us insights into the progress
and regression of the period. In studying the efforts of
both men, one notes that both were designers, creating
solutions in words but also in objects. Jefferson���s elegant
clock, found in Monticello���s entrance hall, and Banneker���s
all-wooden clock, since lost, are both representative of
the ideals of mechanical and visual design.
Banneker and Jefferson aspired, in the end, to similar
values. Banneker demonstrated the proof, as it were, in
the pudding of Jefferson���s ideals, Jefferson realizing (in
part) that his ideals would meander in history towards
fruition.
The times were not right for full fruition. But change they
would.
Jefferson wrote to the Marquis de Condorcet about
Banneker:
[H]e made an Almanac for the next year, which he sent to
me in his own handwriting & which I enclose to you. I���ve
HYLAND
