Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, August 19, 1791, Benjamin Banneker sent a draft of an almanac that he was working on to Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson was of course a founding father, but a scientist scientifically minded so I suppose

Banneker felt it would be a nice move to send him an advanced copy of the

almanac he was drafting everyone likes advanced copies of interesting work

but the almanac isn't really the key element here.

It is the letter that Banneker included alongside the almanac that we are here to discuss

a plea to Jefferson that he uphold the values of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence

and declare slavery immoral. As Banneker wrote to Jefferson, quote, however variable we may be in society or religion, however diversified in situation

or color, we are all of the same family and stand in the same relation to him, God.

So here to discuss Banneker's letter,

his appeal to Jefferson, his Enlightenment era appeal

to Jefferson, and this question, we kind of

of keep circling around on this podcast of the Constitution and the

question of slavery to discuss that all as always are Nicole Hemmer of

Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley hello there

hello Jody.

Hey there.

Kelly, maybe I guess this is the first time we've talked about Benjamin Banneker on this

podcast, so why not a little Benjamin Banneker bio who was this interesting

almanac writer? What do we need to know about

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