The Post-Office was the famous gathering place in those days, and there it was that young Benjamin was accustomed to go. He met many of the leading people of the community, and fluently discussed with them difficult questions. He could answer almost any problem put to him in mathematics, and became known throughout the colonies as a genius. Many of his answers to questions were beyond the reach of ordinary minds.

Messrs. Ellicott & Co., who built flour mills on the Patapsco River near Baltimore, very early discovered Banneka's genius, and Mr. George Ellicott allowed him the use of his library and astronomical instruments. The result of this was that Benjamin Banneka published his first almanac in the year 1792, said to be the first almanac published in America. Before that he had made numerous calculations in astronomy and constructed for himself a splendid clock that, unfortunately, was burned with his dwelling soon after his death.

Banneka's Reputation spread all over America and even to Europe. He drew to him the association of the best and most learned men of his country. His ability was a curiosity to everybody, and did much to establish the fact that the Negro of his time could master the arts and sciences, It is said that he was the master of five different languages, as well as a mathematical and astronomical genius.

He accompanied and assisted the commissioners who surveyed the District of Columbia.

He sent Mr Thomas Jefferson one of his almanacs, which Mr Jefferson prized so highly that he sent it to Paris, and wrote Mr. Banneka the following letter in reply Along with Mr. Banneka's almanac to Mr. Jefferson he sent a letter pleading for better treatment of the people of African descent in the United States.

MR. JEFFERSON'S LETTER TO B. BANNEKA.

PHILADELPHIA, August 30, 1791. "Dear Sir-I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th instant, and for the almanac it contained. Nobody wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit that Nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing only to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America I can add with truth, that no one wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising the condition, both of their body and mind, to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances which cannot be neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your almanac to Monsieur de Cordorat, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris and member of the

Philanthropic Society, because I considered it a document to which your whole color had a right for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them.

"I am, with great esteem, sir,

"Your most obedient servant,

"THOS. JEFFERSON."

Mr. Benjamin Banneka, near Ellicott's
Lower Mills, Baltimore County.

The Personal Appearance of Mr. Banneka is drawn from the letters of those who wrote about him. A certain gentleman who met him at Ellicott's Mills gives this description: "Of black complexion, medium stature, of uncommonly soft and gentlemanly manners, and of pleasing colloquial powers."

Mr. Banneka died about the year 1804, very greatly mourned by the people of this country and Europe. He left two sisters, who, according to his request, turned over his books, papers, and astronomical calculations to Mr. Ellicott. There has been no greater mind in the possession of any American citizen than that of Benjamin Banneka. He stands out in history as one of those phenomenal characters whose achievements seem to be nothing short of miraculous.

Frances Ellen Watkins was another of Marylan I's bright slaves. She distinguished herself as

an anti-slavery lecturer in the Eastern States, and wrote a book entitled, "Poems and Miscellaneous Writings By Frances Ellen Watkins." In that book was the following poem entitled "Ellen Harris:"

(1) Like a fawn from the arrow, startled and wild,

A woman swept by me bearing a child;

In her eye was the night of a settled despair,

And her brow was overshadowed with anguish and care.

(2) She was nearing. the river,-on reaching the brink
She heeded no danger, she paused not to think!

For she is a mother-her child is a slave,

And she'll give him his freedom or find him a grave!

(3) But she's free,-yes, free from the land where the slave
From the hand of oppression must rest in the grave;
Where bondage and torture, where scourges and chains,
Have placed on our banner indelible stains.

(4) The blood-hounds have missed the scent of her way;
The hunter is rifled and foiled of his prey;

Fierce jargon and cursing, with clanking of chains,
Make sounds of strange discord on Liberty's plains.

(5) With the rapture of love and fulness of bliss,
She placed on his brow a mother's fond kiss,—
Oh! poverty, danger, and death she can brave,
For the child of her love is no longer a slave !

CHAPTER VI.

DELAWARE AND PENNSYLVANIA.

Delaware was settled, as you will remember, by the Swedes and Danes, in 1639. They were a simple, contented, and religious people. It is recorded that they had a law very early in their history declaring it was "not lawful to buy and keep slaves." It is very evident, though, that later on in the history of the colony slaves were held, and their condition was the same as in New York. While the north of the colony was perhaps fully in sympathy with slavery, the western part was influenced by the relig ious sentiment of the Quakers in Pennsylvania.

The Friends of Pennsylvania were opposed to slavery, and although slavery was tolerated by law, the way was left open for their education and religious training. In 1688, Francis Daniel Pastorious** addressed a memorial to the Friends of Germantown. His was said to be the first protest against slavery made by any of the churches of America. He believed that "slave and slave-owner should be equal at the Master's feet."

William Penn showed himself friendly to the slaves.

* Williams.