Natural / Environmental Change
Revolutionary Period

Benjamin Banneker and the Rise of the City

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During the Revolutionary era, a cultural, economic, and political divide emerged between people who lived in the city and those who lived in frontier country. Each group of people had their own political structures in place, their own economic system (agriculture in the frontier and the beginnings of a diverse merchant economy along the coast), and different social interactions (people on the frontier were often interacting with Native Americans, while people along the coast came into contact with a variety of travelers, sailors, and merchants).

Portrait of Benjamin Banneker from the cover of his 1795 Almanac, Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society

A main cause of this division was the growth of cities along the eastern coast. Boston, Newport, Hartford, New York, Philadelphia , Washington, DC, and Charlestown all grew in physical size and population during the revolutionary era. With the help of surveyors like Benjamin Banneker, who worked on the city plans for Washington, DC, these Revolution era cities laid the foundations for urban life.

Benjamin Banneker's Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris, for the Year of Our Lord 1792

Bannecker became famous for his Almanac, seen here. His skills as a mathematician, scientist, and astronomer helped make his Alamanac one of the most popular of its time.

Washington in 1800

Banneker’s skills as a mathematician became increasingly important during the Revolutionary era, when talented surveyors, architects, and mathematicians were needed to design city layouts.

A map of the city of Washington in the District of Columbia established as the permanent seat of the government of the United States of America. City map with depiction of East front of the Capitol of the United States / by Rt. King, surveyor of the Cit
Thomas Jefferson assigned Banneker to a team of surveyors overseeing the expansion of Washington, D.C. Banneker and other city planners had a big influence on the development of cities.
The Seat of war in New England, by an American volunteer, with the marches of the several corps sent by the Colonies towards Boston, with the attack on Bunkers-Hill

During the Revolutionary era, Boston was one of the largest cities in the country. On this map, the urban sprawl of the city already appears to be moving outward from the original port on the Massachusetts Bay .

An east prospect of the city of Philadelphia; taken by George Heap from the Jersey shore, under the direction of Nicholas Scull surveyor general of the Province of Pennsylvania / engrav'd by T. Jefferys
Philadelphia was another rapidly changing city. Seen here is the grid lay-out for the city center. Many major cities along the eastern coast followed a similar pattern in their urban design.
"Evacuation day" and Washington's triumphal entry in New York City, Nov. 25th, 1783. Lithograph by E. P. & L. Restein, 1879.
New York City, particularly the island of Manhattan, became an increasingly large urban area during the Revolutionary era. Here is an example of an artist’s interpretation of George Washington entering New York City.