ropeans have done to promote the mental development of
the native of the dark continent.

In the seventh volume of the _Documentos para la Historia Argentina_
are found materials bearing on the _Comercio de Indias, Consualdo,
Comercio de Negros y Extranjeros_, 1791-1809.

The June number of the _Political Science Quarterly_ contained an
article _The Negro Vote in Old New York_ by D. E. Fox.

THE JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO HISTORY

VOL. III--APRIL, 1918--NO. 2

BENJAMIN BANNEKER, THE NEGRO MATHEMATICIAN AND ASTRONOMER

The city of Washington very recently celebrated the 125th anniversary
of the completion of the survey and laying out of the Federal
Territory constituting the District of Columbia. This was executed
under the supervision of the famous French civil engineer, Major
Pierre Charles L'Enfant, as the head of a commission appointed by
George Washington, then president of the United States. Serving as one
of the commissioners, sitting in conference with them and performing
an important part in the mathematical calculations involved in the
survey, was the Negro mathematician and astronomer, Benjamin Banneker.
As there did not appear to be during this celebration any disposition
to give proper recognition to the scientific work done by Banneker,
the writer has thought it opportune to present in this form a brief
review of Banneker's life so as to revive an interest in him and point
out some of this useful man's important achievements.

On a previous occasion the writer undertook to collect some data with
the same object in view, and at that time he addressed a letter to the
postmaster at Ellicott City, Maryland, asking to be put in touch with
some one of the Ellicott family, who might furnish reliable data on
the subject. In this way, correspondence was established with the
family of Mrs. Martha Ellicott Tyson, of Baltimore. One of her
descendants, Mrs. Tyson Manly, kindly came over from Baltimore, and,
calling on the writer at the United States Patent Office, presented
him with a copy of the life of Banneker, published in Philadelphia in
1884, and compiled from the papers of Martha Ellicott Tyson, who was
the daughter of George Ellicott, a member of the noted Maryland
family, who established the business that developed the town of
Ellicott City.

Between George Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker, Mrs. Tyson says, there
existed "a special sympathy,"[144] and she further refers to her
father as "the w