Chapters 1-3 Summary and Analysis

"At a time when President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson were discouraged and felt that their plans for a new capital of the country were doomed to failure, a black surveyor stepped forward and saved the situation." That surveyor was Benjamin Banneker, a mathematician and astronomer that lived in colonial times. Banneker is credited with the final layout and completion of the city of Washington, DC. under extraordinary circumstances.

Banneker came from unusual stock. Banneker's father was a slave and his mother was a freewoman. Banneker's grandmother, Molly Walsh, was a white Englishwoman, who was arrested and sentenced to seven years bondage on the false charge of stealing milk. The Banneker family was unusual in many ways. Molly was a former dairymaid in England and her husband was born of royal African blood. The couple used...