peated assertion that the
school was one attended by both white and colored children. The author
of the last-mentioned sketch was evidently not sure of these two
statements, and therefore did not include them. In fact, he appears
not to have been quite sure of the propriety of submitting any sketch
at all of this "free man of color" to the distinguished body
constituting the Maryland Historical Society, for there was a clear
note of apology in his opening declaration that "A few words may be
necessary to explain why a memoir of a free man of color, formerly a
resident of Maryland, is deemed of sufficient interest to be presented
to the Historical Society." But he justified his effort on the grounds
that "no questions relating to our country (are) of more interest than
those connected with her colored population"; that that interest had
"acquired an absorbing character"; that the presence of the colored
population in States where slavery existed "modified their
institutions in important particulars," and effected "in a greater or
less degree the character of the dominant race"; and "for this reason
alone," he said, "the memoir of a colored man, who had distinguished
himself in an abstruse science, by birth a Marylander, claims
consideration from those who have associated to collect and preserve
facts and records relating to the men and deeds of the past."--J. H.
B. Latrobe in _Maryland Historical Society Publications_, I, p. 8.

[148] Ford edition of _Jefferson's Writings_, V, p. 379.

[149] In the memoir of Banneker, above mentioned, read before the
Maryland Historical Society in 1845, and in another memoir of
Banneker, read before the same Society by Mr. J. Saurin Norris, in
1854, the estate purchased by Mollie Welsh is referred to as "a small
farm near the present site of Baltimore," and "purchased at a merely
nominal price." See Norris's _Memoir_, p. 3.

[150] Norris _Memoir_, p. 4; Williams's _History of the Negro Race_,
p. 386.

[151] Tyson, _Banneker_, p. 10.

[152] It is elsewhere given as 7,000, but the earlier record seems to
be the correct one.

[153] _Atlantic Monthly_, XI, p. 81.

[154] Latrobe, _Memoir, Maryland Historical Society Publications_, I,
p. 7.

[155] _Ibid._, I, p. 7.

[156] Banneker would frequently, in answering questions submitted to
him, accompany the answers with questions of his own in rhyme. The
following is an example of such a question submitted by him to another
noted mathe