Self-taught at all kinds of stuff, built a clock by himself in his childhood (for those looking for modern parallels)
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The story goes L'enfant got fired from the DC project in favor of Maj. Ellicott so he tore up the original plans in a huff
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And Banneker was the one who helped Ellicott reconstruct them based on his memory of the originals
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Anyway when he was in what is now DC to work on the plans Jefferson got super excited and invited him to come to Monticello
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Said he wanted to meet the world's smartest Black man and talk about the future of race and so forth
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Banneker sent back a blistering angry letter saying he wasn't going to discuss anything until Jefferson explained his hypocrisy
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And how a man could write the immortal words "all men are created equal" but hold men in bondage
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Jefferson never replied to that letter. Months later he wrote to someone else "I'm sorry I never got a chance to meet Banneker"
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"But you know what I think his intelligence is overrated. Everyone wants there to be a great Negro scholar but he seems mediocre to me"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent
That sounds so much like something one of those MSNBC hosts would say about DeRay or someone contemporary now
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Yuuup. He said something similar about Phyllis Wheatley
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"Everyone's so excited bc she's a black woman but I think her poetry is just overrated"
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The Guy Who Wants Black Celebrities to Succeed But Thinks Any Specific Celebrity Is Overrated
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