Daphnie Telemaque

Daphnie Telemaque These two letters pertain to one topic: that of Jefferson's beliefs about the African race's capacity for intellect and achievement compared to white men. In the first letter, Banneker, a free black man and successful mathematician, challenges Jefferson's former statements concerning the capabilities of those of the African race. Jefferson is familiar with Banneker’s background—by this time, Banneker has shown his intellect by being one of the few men chosen to help survey the land that would become Washington, D.C., and he accurately predicted the solar eclipse of 1789. Banneker opens his letter by directly confronting the seeming hypocrisy of Jefferson's statements about human rights in the Declaration of Independence with his practice of owning slaves. Banneker also questions how Jefferson can support such a tyrannical system, in light of Jefferson's own struggle to fight off tyranny in the form of the British crown. Banneker recognizes that scientific-minded Jefferson will ask for direct proof that black men are equally capable, so he provides it. In addition to the letter, Banneker sends to Jefferson a handwritten copy of his soon-to-be-published scientific data for his 1792 almanac. Banneker hopes that the intellect he displays by contributing the data for this almanac will satisfy Jefferson's question as to whether a black man could ever equal a white man, in terms of achievement and intellect. The second letter, then, is Jefferson's response to Banneker. The letter is somewhat cordial, but quite short and direct. Jefferson thanks Banneker for the almanac and offers his hopes that the black race lacks intellect only due to their "degraded condition" as slaves, rather than as an entire race of people destined for failure. Jefferson also notes that he will send the almanac on to antislavery Marquis de Condorcet, the secretary of The Academie des Sciences in Paris at that time.

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