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Sometime in the early 1750s,

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a 22-year-old man named
Benjamin Banneker

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sat industriously carving cogs
and gears out of wood.

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He pieced the parts together

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to create the complex inner working
of a striking clock

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that would, hopefully, 
chime every hour.

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All he had to help him was 
a pocket watch for inspiration

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and his own calculations.

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And yet, his careful engineering worked.

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Striking clocks had already been
around for hundreds of years,

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but Banneker's may have been
the first created in America,

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and it drew fascinated visitors from
across the country.

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In a show of his brilliance,

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the clock continued to chime
for the rest of Banneker's life.

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Born in 1731 to freed slaves
on a farm in Baltimore, Maryland,

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from his earliest days,

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the young Banneker was obsessed
with math and science.

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And his appetite for knowledge only grew
as he taught himself astronomy,

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mathematics,

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engineering,

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and the study of the natural world.

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As an adult, he used astronomy
to accurately predict

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lunar and solar events,

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like the solar eclipse of 1789,

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and even applied his mathematical skills
to land use planning.

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These talents caught the eye of a local
Baltimore businessman, Andrew Ellicott,

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who was also the Surveyor General
of the United States.

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Recognizing Banneker's skills in 1791,

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Ellicott appointed him as an assistant
to work on a prestigious new project,

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planning the layout 
of the nation's capitol.

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Meanwhile, Banneker turned 
his brilliant mind to farming.

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He used his scientific expertise
to pioneer new agricultural methods

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on his family's tobacco farm.

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His fascination with the natural world

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also led to a study on the plague
life cycle of locusts.

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Then in 1792, Banneker 
began publishing almanacs.

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These provided detailed annual information
on moon and sun cycles,

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weather forecasts,

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and planting and tidal time tables.

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Banneker sent a handwritten copy
of his first almanac

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to Virginia's Secretary of State
Thomas Jefferson.

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This was a decade before Jefferson
became president.

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Banneker included a letter imploring
Jefferson to

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"embrace every opportunity to eradicate

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that train of absurd 
and false ideas and opinions"

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that caused prejudice 
against black people.

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Jefferson read the almanac and wrote
back in praise of Banneker's work.

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Banneker's correspondence with 
the future president

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is now considered to be one of the first
documented examples

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of a civil rights 
protest letter in America.

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For the rest of his life,
he fought for this cause,

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sharing his opposition to slavery
through his writing.

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In 1806 at the age of 75,

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Banneker died after a lifetime
of study and activism.

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On the day of his funeral,
his house mysteriously burned down,

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and the majority of his life's work,

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including his striking clock, 
was destroyed.

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But still, his legacy lives on.