CHAPTER XXIX.

THE NEGRO INTELLECT.--BANNEKER THE ASTRONOMER.--FULLER THE MATHEMATICIAN.--DERHAM THE PHYSICIAN.

Statutory Prohibition against the Education of Negroes.--Benjamin Banneker, the Negro Astronomer and Philosopher.--His Antecedents--Young Banneker as a Farmer and Inventor--The Mills of Ellicott & Co.--Banneker cultivates his Mechanical Genius and Mathematical Tastes.--Banneker's first Calculation of an Eclipse submitted for Inspection in 1789.--His Letter to Mr Ellicott.--The Testimony of a Personal Acquaintance of Banneker as to his Upright Character.--His Home becomes a Place of Interest to Visitors.--Record of his Business Transactions.--Mrs. Mason's Visit to him.--She addresses him in Verse.--Banneker replies by Letter to her.--Prepares his First Almanac for Publication in 1792.--Title of his Almanac--Banneker's Letter to Thomas Jefferson.--Thomas Jefferson's Reply.--Banneker invited to accompany the Commissioners to run the Lines of the District of Columbia.--Banneker's Habits of studying the Heavenly Bodies.--Minute Description given to his Sisters in Reference to the Disposition of his Personal Property after Death.--His Death.--Regarded as the most Distinguished Negro of his Time.--Fuller the Mathematician, or "The Virginia Calculator."--Fuller of African Birth, but stolen and sold as a Slave into Virginia.--Visited by Men of Learning.--He was pronounced to be a Prodigy in the Manipulation of Figures.--His Death.--Derham the Physician.--Science of Medicine regarded as the most Intricate Pursuit of Man.--Early Life of James Derham.--His Knowledge of Medicine, how acquired.--He becomes a Prominent Physician in New Orleans.--Dr. Rush gives an Account of an Interview with him.--What the Negro Race produced by their Genius in America. 385