Gustavus Vassa was born in Africa in 1745 and was brought to
America as a slave. Eventually, after serving several masters,
he became the property of a Philadelphia merchant who let him
buy his own freedom. After working for some time as a sailor, he
settled in England, where he felt he would encounter less racial
discrimination. There he became an active worker in the British
anti-slavery movement. In 1789 he published his autobiography,
"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oloudah Equiano, or
Gustavus Vassa", in which he bitterly attacked Christians for
participating in the slave trade.
In 1792, Benjamin Banneker, a freedman from Maryland, wrote to
Thomas Jefferson complaining that it was time to eradicate false
racial stereotypes. While expressing doubts regarding the merits
of slavery in his "Notes on Virginia", Jefferson had expressed his
belief in the inferiority of the African. Banneker had educated
himself, especially in mathematics and astronomy, and in 1789 he
was one of those who helped to survey the District of Columbia.
Later, he predicted a solar eclipse.
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