Benjamin Banneker and us Eleven generations of an American family

Review by Booklist Review

Discovery of her "lost" African American ancestry set white poet Webster on an unexpected path. She spent years immersed in archival research and in extensive conversations with her newly found Black cousins who had gathered documents and oral histories tracing their connections to the extraordinary mathematician, naturalist, astronomer, writer, and freedom fighter Benjamin Banneker. A free man of color, Banneker created best-selling almanacs and was hired by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to help survey Washington, DC. Webster writes candidly about her white privilege in telling this story and her decision to give voice to the "thoughts and feelings" of her ancestors in sections based on "grounded imagination" that bring spare genealogical and historical facts to intimate, vivid life. This complexly involving chronicle of revelations and conscience begins with a young English indentured servant, Molly, who was exiled to the colony of Maryland in 1686. She eventually married an enslaved African man, Bana'ka. Their oldest daughter, Mary, a healer and herbalist, had five children, including Benjamin and Jemima, Webster's direct ancestor. Drawing on her acute sensitivity to language and bias, sharing long discussions with her cousins, and meshing their family history with the brutal realities of Banneker's time, Webster has created an engrossing, multifaceted, profoundly thoughtful, and beautifully rendered inquiry that forms a clarifying lens on America's ongoing struggles against racism and endemic injustice.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Poet Webster (Mary Is a River) offers a stunning meditation on race, identity, and achievement. At a family reunion in 2016, Webster, who is white, discovered that she was related to Benjamin Banneker (1731--1806), the African American mathematician, almanac publisher, and astronomer who helped to survey Washington, D.C. Setting out to investigate this open secret (in census records, one branch of the family had M next to their names for "mulatto"), Webster details Banneker's accomplishments, including the publication of his "fervent and eloquent" letter to Thomas Jefferson "accus the Founding Fathers of committing the most criminal act by perpetuating slavery." Webster also sketches the lives of Banneker's grandmother, Molly, an English dairymaid who was sentenced to indentured servitude in Maryland; his grandfather, Bana'ka, who was kidnapped in West Africa and enslaved; and his mother, Mary, who appears to have successfully petitioned the Maryland courts to free her eldest daughter from indentured servitude in 1731. While Webster does not shy away from the uglier aspects of this history, including the sexual exploitation of working-class and enslaved women, a sense of optimism pervades, and her expansive imagination and fluid prose bring these historical figures to life. It's an enthralling and clear-eyed celebration of America's multiracial past and present. (Mar.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Poet Webster (Mary Is a River) brings a lyrical style to her prose and her performance of this extraordinary work of creative nonfiction centering on the life of polymath Benjamin Banneker. A free Black man, Banneker (1731--1806) worked the tobacco farm left to him by his father, a formerly enslaved man, and his mother, a free woman, but he was a scientist at heart. Fascinated by the moon's movements and the stars, he taught himself astronomy, eventually publishing a series of almanacs. At a 2016 family reunion, Webster, who had always considered herself white, was stunned to learn she was related to Banneker. She reached out to her newfound cousins, and together they discovered what they could about Banneker, a task made more difficult because white supremacists burned down his home after his death and destroyed all but one of his journals. Interspersed with descriptions of her research journey are chapters containing enthralling imaginings, based on historical facts where possible, of how Banneker and his relatives survived centuries of appalling racism. VERDICT Eloquently written and movingly narrated, Webster's thought-provoking biography/memoir will likely appeal to anyone wanting insight into the United States' divisive racial politics.--Beth Farrell

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