Professor Ed Larson, "Banneker's Answer to Jefferson: 'I Am an American'" -- American Heritage

Professor Edward J. Larson's essay, "Banneker's Answer to Jefferson: 'I Am an American,'" is published in American Heritage, Volume 68, Issue 7. Benjamin Banneker was a Black naturalist, astronomer, surveyor, and almanac-writer who exchanged correspondence with Thomas Jefferson. Banneker assisted in surveying the District of Columbia in 1791 and published the Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac of 1792.

The essay is adapted from Professor Larson’s latest book, American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795, which may be found at W. W. Norton