{"product_id":"benjamin-banneker-and-us-eleven-generations-of-an-american-family-paperback","title":"Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eRachel Jamison Webster\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA family reunion gives way to an unforgettable genealogical quest as relatives \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ereconnect across lines of color, culture, and time, putting the past into urgent \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003econversation with the present.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1791, Thomas Jefferson hired a Black man to help survey Washington, DC. That man was Benjamin Banneker, an African American mathematician, a writer of almanacs, and one of the greatest astronomers of his generation. Banneker then wrote what would become a famous letter to Jefferson, imploring the new president to examine his hypocrisy, as someone who claimed to love liberty yet was an enslaver. More than two centuries later, Rachel Jamison Webster, an ostensibly white woman, learns that this groundbreaking Black forefather is also her distant relative. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eActing as a storyteller, Webster draws on oral history and conversations with her DNA cousins to imagine the lives of their shared ancestors across eleven generations, among them Banneker's grandparents, an interracial couple who broke the law to marry when America was still a conglomerate of colonies under British rule. These stories shed light on the legal construction of race and display the brilliance and resistance of early African Americans in the face of increasingly unjust laws, some of which are still in effect in the present day.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 384\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.1 x 8.9 x 5.8 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e March 19, 2024\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42700552667232,"sku":"9781250871800","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bijoucc.myshopify.com\/products\/benjamin-banneker-and-us-eleven-generations-of-an-american-family-paperback","provider":"CARIBBEAN CONNECT","version":"1.0","type":"link"}