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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Banneker , Benjamin 1731 -1806 (search)
Banneker, Benjamin, 1731-1806
A negro mathematician; born in Maryland, Nov. 9, 1731.
He taught himself mathematics; and for many years, while engaged in daily labor, made the necessary calculations for and published an almanac for Maryland and the adjoining States.
Mr. Jefferson presented one of his almanacs to the French Academy of Sciences, where it excited wonder and admiration, and the African almanac became well known to the scientific circles of Europe.
In 1790 he was employed by the commissioners in the survey of the boundaries of the District of Columbia.
His grandmother was an Englishwoman, who purchased a small plantation in Maryland, bought two slaves from a ship just from Africa and married one of them.
He died in Baltimore, in October, 1806.
Berlin decree, the.
In 1803 England joined the Continental powers against Napoleon.
England, offended because of the seizure of Hanover by the Prussians, at the instigation of Napoleon, made the act a pretext, in 1806, for employing against France a measure calculated to starve the empire.
By Orders in Council (May 16) the whole coast of Europe from the Elbe, in Germany, to Brest, in France, a distance of about 800 miles, was declared to be in a state of blockade, when, at the same time, the British navy could not spare vessels enough from other fields of service to enforce the blockade over a third of the prescribed coast.
It was essentially a paper blockade.
The almost entire destruction of the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar, a few months before, had annihilated her rivals in the contest for the sovereignty of the seas, and she now resolved to control the trade of the world.
Napoleon had dissolved the German Empire, prostrated Prussia at his feet, and, from the Impe
Boer,
A Dutch term meaning farmer.
given to the descendants of the Holland emigrants to the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.
They gradually extended civilization over a wide territory.
The British acquired the settlement in 1796 as a fruit of war. In 1803 it was restored to the Dutch, but in 1806 was again seized by the British.
In the Congress of Vienna (1814) Holland formally ceded it to Great Britain.
This settlement became known as Cape Colony.
A large majority of the Boers moved north in 1835-36, a number settling in the region which afterwards became known as the Orange Free State, and the remainder in the present colony of Natal.
The settlers in the latter region stayed there until Great Britain took possession of it in 1843, when they removed farther north, and organized the South African, or, as it has been generally called, the Transvaal, Republic.
In 1877 the South African Republic was annexed by the British government; in 1880 the Boers there rose in revolt: in 1881
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Breckenridge , John 1760 -1806 (search)
Breckenridge, John, 1760-1806
Statesman; born in Augusta county. Va., Dec. 2, 1760; was admitted to the bar in 1785; elected to Congress in 1793 but did not accept, having determined to remove to Kentucky, where he settled near Lexington.
He was appointed attorney-general of Kentucky in 1795.
In 1798 he met Jefferson and Nicholas at Monticello and prepared the famous Kentucky resolutions of 1798, of which Jefferson claimed the authorship.
In 1801 he was elected to the United States Senate, and resigned in 1805 to become Attorney-General under President Jefferson, which office he filled about four months. He died in Lexington, Ky., Dec. 14, 1806.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Campbell , John 1708 -1806 (search)
Campbell, John 1708-1806
Author; born in Edinburgh, Scotland, March 8, 1708; began his literary career early in life.
His publications relating to the United States include Concise history of Spanish America; Voyages and travels from Columbus to Anson; And trade of Great Britain to America.
He died Dec. 28, 1775.
Military officer; born in Strachur, Scotland; joined the British army in 1745; later came to America and while participating in the attack on Fort Ticonderoga in 1758 was d trade of Great Britain to America.
He died Dec. 28, 1775.
Military officer; born in Strachur, Scotland; joined the British army in 1745; later came to America and while participating in the attack on Fort Ticonderoga in 1758 was wounded; promoted lieutenant-general in 1787.
When the Revolutionary War broke out he was lieutenant-colonel of the 37th Foot, and commanded the British forces in west Florida until compelled to surrender Pensacola to the Spanish, May 10, 1781.
He died in 1806.
Chauncey, Isaac
Naval officer; born
Isaac Chauncey. in Black Rock, Conn., Feb: 20, 1772; in early life was in the merchant service,
Chauncey's monument. and commanded a ship at the age of nineteen years. He made several voyages to the East Indies in the ships of John Jacob Astor.
In 1798 he was made a lieutenant of the navy, and was acting captain of the Chesapeake in 1802.
He became master in May, 1804, and captain in 1806.
During the War of 1812-15 he was in command of the American naval force on Lake Ontario, where he performed efficient service.
After that war he commanded the Mediterranean squadron, and, with Consul Shaler, negotiated a treaty with Algiers.
In 1820 he was naval commissioner in Washington, D. C., and again from 1833 until his death, in that city, Jan. 27, 1840. Commodore Chauncey's remains were interred in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, and at the head of his grave stands a fine white-marble monument, suitably inscribed.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Chevalier , Michel 1806 - (search)
Chevalier, Michel 1806-
Political economist; born in Limoges, France, Jan. 13, 1806; educated in a polytechnic school; came to the United States to examine its canals and railroads.
His publications include Lettres sur l'amerique du Nord; Introduction aux rapports du jury international; Histoire et description des voies de communication aux États-unis et des travaux qui en dependent; Cours daeconomie; L'isthme de Panama; La liberte aux États-unis; L'expedition du Mexique; Le Mexique ancien et moderne, etc. He died Nov. 28, 187
Chew, Benjamin 1722-
Jurist; born in West River, Md., Nov. 29, 1722; settled in Philadelphia in 1745; was recorder in 1755-72; and became chief-justice of Pennsylvania in 1774.
During the Revolutionary War he sided with the royalist party, and in 1777 he was imprisoned in Fredericksburg, Va., because he had refused to give a parole.
On Oct. 4, 1777, during the battle of Germantown, a British outpost took refuge in his large stone mansion, and the Americans, in order to drive them out, fired on the building with muskets and cannon.
The building, however, was too strongly built to be demolished by the 3 and 6 pounder field-pieces of that time.
A brigade commanded by Maxwell was left to surround the house, while the main American force pushed on. This incident gave the British time to prepare for the American attack.
From 1790 to 1806, when the High Court of Errors and Appeals was abandoned, he was president of that court.
He died Jan. 20, 1810.
See Germantown, battle of.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Cleaveland , Moses 1754 -1806 (search)
Cleaveland, Moses 1754-1806
Pioneer: born in Canterbury.
Conn., Jan. 29, 1754; graduated at Yale College in 1777; admitted to the bar; made a brigadier-general in 1796; and the same year was selected by a land company, of which he was a shareholder, to survey the tract which had been purchased in northeastern Ohio.
He set out with fifty emigrants from Schenectady, N. Y.; reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga on July 22; and finding it a favorable site for a town decided to settle there.
His employers called the place Cleaveland in his honor.
When the first newspaper, the Cleveland Advertiser, was established, the head-line was found to be too long for the form, and the editor cut out the letter a, which revision was accepted by the public.
General Cleaveland died in Canterbury, Conn., Nov. 16, 1806.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Cleveland , Benjamin 1738 -1806 (search)
Cleveland, Benjamin 1738-1806
Military officer; born in Prince William county, Va., May 26, 1738; removed to North Carolina in 1769; entered the American army in 1775; led a company in the campaign of Rutherford against the Cherokee Indians in 1776; greatly distinguished himself at King's Mountain (q. v.); and later settled in South Carolina, where he became a judge.
He died in October, 1806.
Cleveland, Grover