 |
班尼卡與傑弗遜的書信往來，暴露出傑弗遜提及奴隸問題的矛盾。
|
|
|
|
數學家和天文學家，班哲明‧班尼卡出生，1731年11月9日
1791年8月19日，班尼卡寄了他第一本曆書的影本給傑弗遜，並且洋洋灑灑的陳述。在一封封口信中，他指出要奴隸擁有者發自內心地把自己當做「自由的朋友」；他要求傑弗遜協助去除「荒謬且錯誤的思想」，因為沒有任何種族是優於其他種族的。他期許傑弗遜有和他一樣高尚的情操：「宇宙之父給予我們相同的情感…祂賜予我們同樣的才能。」傑弗遜以讚揚他傑出的成就做為回應。
On August 19, 1791, Banneker sent a copy of his first almanac to Thomas Jefferson, then secretary of state. In an enclosed letter, he questioned the slave owner's sincerity as a "friend to liberty." He urged Jefferson to help get rid of "absurd and false ideas" that one race is superior to another. He wished Jefferson's sentiments to be the same as his, that "one Universal Father . . . afforded us all the same sensations and endowed us all with the same faculties." Jefferson responded with praise for Banneker's accomplishments.
3/3 頁
|
