Letter to Benjamin Banneker - August 30, 1791

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Letter to Benjamin Banneker (1791)
by Thomas Jefferson
August 30, 1791
1580074Letter to Benjamin Banneker — August 30, 17911791Thomas Jefferson

Sir,

--I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th instant and for the Almanac it contained. No body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa & America. I can add with truth, that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising the condition both of their body & mind to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances which cannot be neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your Almanac to Monsieur de Condorcet, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and member of the Philanthropic society, because I consider it as a document to which your whole colour had a right for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them. I am with great esteem, Sir Your most obedt humble servt.[1]

References[edit]

  1. Thomas Jefferson (August 30, 1791). "Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Banneker, August 30, 1791". The Library of Congress. Retrieved December 18, 2013. 

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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