Thomas Jefferson's Letter to Benjamin Banneker

Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state in the first federal government and one of Virginia's largest planters and slave holders, wrote this letter to Benjamin Banneker in response to a letter that argued strongly for an end to slavery. In it Banneker had enclosed a manuscript copy of the mathematical calculations for his 1792 almanac. Jefferson's polite response expresses his ambivalent feelings about slavery and the native abilities of black individuals.