Miles Trumbull

December 6th, 2015

                Benjamin Banneker’s Clock

I wake up in my old wooden house, with my door open, and my waistcoat on the floor. I remember I have to get right to work on the fields today. I run onto the dark wood floor and grab my black waistcoat, white button down and cravat. The cravat hasn’t been washed in sometime and is becoming more beige than white. I grab some stale bread and walk out the door.

The tobacco wasn’t going to farm itself. Spending time of the farm lets me think about a lot of things. I open the creaky, unhinged wooden door to see a splinter in my hand. The blazing sun instantly hits my hazel eyes and causes me to use my hand like a tricorn hat as if I was some sort of pirate. My feet sink into the damp grass and I can tell it rained yesterevening. I slowly walk to the farm that seems a mile away, and I think about my idea. There is something I have been trying to make for some time now. Today is the day that I finish my clock. I have already made the gears, it is now time to put it all together.

I rush into the room and almost hurt myself going to the door. “There you are honey! Just in time for dinner! Please, sit down, it will be ready in a few minutes,” My wife says in her soft voice.

“First let me show you my newest invention!” I reply.

“Not another of these, come on honey, show me after dinner,” My wife insists. “It’s a clock,” I say.

“Oh come on honey, you’re being frivolous!” She says with both anger and laughter.

I unveil it to her and she quickly says, “Oh honey, it’s marvelous!” At this point, our dinner has been forgotten and turned cold.

“I have been working on it for some time now,” I say with gratification. “This is huge for us, the first clock in America, created by an African!”

“Your father must be very proud of you,” Florence says.

We then sit down in our wobbly, and uneven chairs and have an amazing dinner talking about how this will change our African lives.

This is so important to both my culture, and my family. Growing up with a father that once experienced slavery was very hard. He had no human life. I knew that I had to make him proud. This shows that a skin color doesn’t limit the success you can obtain. The first clock in America is made by a black man. That will always be in the back of the minds of the English. When I accomplished this, it made me feel warm inside. Like I represented my people well. I cannot wait to tell my father of this. I hope he is proud of me.