Benjamin Banneker Challenges Thomas Jefferson

Who was Benjamin Banneker? Scientist, clockmaker, Assistant to the Surveyor of Washington, DC, creator of bestselling almanacs, and possibly the first African American to publicly challenge Jefferson on the topics of slavery, race, and equality. In this episode of In the Course of Human Events, we look at letters Banneker and Jefferson exchanged in 1791 and consider how the problem of slavery prevented two individuals with so much in common from forming a friendship.