August 19, 1791 Benjamin Banneker, a mathematician, inventor, philosopher, almanac compiler, and free Black man from Baltimore, sends then–secretary of state Thomas Jefferson a letter protesting the treatment and condition of “those of my complexion” in the new nation. Two years earlier the U.S. Constitution went into effect, enshrining both the Three-fifths Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Clause. In his letter, Banneker tells Jefferson that the institution of slavery contradicts the ideals in the Declaration of Independence.
