history, however, must not
"despise the day of small things." Judged according to the standards
of her time, Phyllis Wheatley was an exceptionally intellectual
person.

[Footnote 1: Baldwin, _Observations_, etc., p. 18; Wright, _Poems of
Phyllis Wheatley_, Introduction.]

The other distinguished Negro, Benjamin Banneker, was born in
Baltimore County, Maryland, November 9, 1731, near the village of
Ellicott Mills. Banneker was sent to school in the neighborhood, where
he learned reading, writing, and arithmetic. Determined to acquire
knowledge while toiling, he applied his mind to things intellectual,
cultivated the power of observation, and developed a retentive memory.
These acquirements finally made him tower above all other American
scientists of his time with the possible exception of Benjamin
Franklin. In conformity with his desire to do and create, his tendency
was toward mathematics. Although he had never seen a clock, watches
being the only timepieces in the vicinity, he made in 1770 the first
clock manufactured in the United States,[1] thereby attracting the
attention of the scientific world. Learning these things, the owner of
Ellicott Mills became very much interested in this man of inventive
genius, lent him books, and encouraged him in his chosen field.
Among these volumes were treatises on astronomy, which Banneker soon
mastered without any instruction.[2] Soon he could calculate eclipses
of sun and moon and the rising of each star with an accuracy almost
unknown to Americans. Despite his limited means, he secured through
Goddard and Angell of Baltimore the publication of the first almanac
produced in this country. Jefferson received from Banneker a copy,
for which he wrote the author a letter of thanks. It appears that
Jefferson had some doubts about the man's genius, but the fact that
the philosopher invited Banneker to visit him at Monticello in 1803,
indicates that the increasing reputation of the Negro must have
caused Jefferson to change his opinion as to the extent of Banneker's
attainments and the value of his contributions to mathematics and
science.[3]

[Footnote 1: Washington, _Jefferson's Works_, vol. v., p. 429.]

[Footnote 2: Baldwin, _Observations_, etc., p. 16.]

[Footnote 3: Washington, _Jefferson's Works_, vol. v., p. 429.]

So favorable did the aspect of things become as a result of this
movement to elevate the Negroes, that persons observing the conditions
then obtaining in thi