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Robert Thomas was a fine editor
and obviously a good friend of Ben's
and wrote this about the author in the preface
of that first Farmer's Almanac:

The labours of the justly celebrated Banneker will likewise
furnish you with a very important lesson, Courteous Reader,
which you will not find in any other almanac,
namely, that the Maker of the Universe is no respector of colours;
that the colour of the skin
is no way connected with the strength of mind or intellectual powers;
that although the God of Nature has marked the face of the African
with a darker hue than his brethren,
He has given him a soul equally capable of refinement.