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** Benjamin Banneker's Letter to Thomas Jefferson ([link removed])
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It's hard to reconcile the fact that Thomas Jefferson, the author of the words, "all men are created equal" owned over 600 other human beings during his life. In 1791, Benjamin Banneker, a free African American man, author, surveyor, landowner and farmer from Maryland penned a letter ([link removed] ) to Jefferson laying out in bold, direct prose how the new nation was failing to live up to its founding principle of equality by continuing to allow the institution of slavery. What arguments did Banneker use, and how did he demonstrate the virtue of respect in his letter?
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What can portraits reveal about African Americans during the Founding Era? In her second episode exploring African Americans and the Founding Era, Mary looks at a woodcut portrait of Benjamin Banneker, a self-taught African American author and thinker born in 1731. What is the significance of the inclusion of this portrait in Banneker's own published almanac? What did Banneker's publishing of almanacs have to do with the fight against–in Banneker's own words–“the almost general prejudice and prepossession which is so prevalent in the world against those of my complexion”?

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