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, the son of Robert and Mary Bannaky was born in Baltimore County, Maryland in 1731. His grandfather was a slave from Africa and his grandmother was an indentured servant from England. His grandfather was an African prince known as Banna Ka , then later as Bann ....

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.... Bannaky’s crops flourished even in dry spells. The family of free blacks raised good tobacco crops all the time. There was no school in the valley for the boys to attend. Then one summer, a Quaker school teacher came to live in the valley and he set up school for the boys. The schoolmaster changed the spelling of Benjamin’s last name to Banneker. He had the equivalent of an eighth-grade education by the time he was fifteen, with much of what he knew coming from his grandmother, Molly. She taught him and his brothers how to read, using her bible as a lesson book. Eventually he took over operation of the family farm. One of the main points in ....