DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0149
NEGRO CALCULATOR.
129
I first asked him the amount of the aliquot parts of a
pound, from a 16th to a 32d part, which he answered very
quickly. I next asked him the amount of 1 to 20 inclusive,
in arithmetical progression; which after a pause of a few mi-
nutes, and twirling his thumbs, as is usual for him to do when
at work, he gave me a true answer. I then told him, if he
would proceed to 50, I would give him sixpence, and if he
went on to a 100, I would give him a shilling; he then con-
tinued his work to 50, and desired to be excused the remain-
der till the morning, when he took up the question where he
left off, and gave me a true answer. 1 next asked him, if a
hundred stones were laid in a right line, a yard asunder, and
the first stone a yard from a basket, how far a man must run
to fetch them into a basket. He quickly went up to the 30th
stone, and would have done the remainder if I had promised
him more reward.
He keeps a very good account, by his memory only, what
he has given him from time to time, which is put into a box
to be kept for him ; and although it is very often put a penny,
or twopence, at a time, or whatever it is, he will tell the day
every sum was put in, and who gave it him, for two years
back, and how much is now in the box, though he has not
seen his bank told over from the first commencement of it.
Ann. Reg. 1765, p. 83.
NEGRO CALCULATOR.
By the report of Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, a pheno-
menon, equal, if not superior to that prodigy in calcu-
lation, Jedediah Buxton, has appeared in Maryland, in the
person of a black slave; this is more extraordinary, as it is
somewhere remarked, that few of the woolly-headed blacks
can go farther in the art of enumeration than the number 5.
The man being asked how many seconds a man of seventy
years, some odd months, weeks, and days, had lived ? in a
VOL. IV. to
129
I first asked him the amount of the aliquot parts of a
pound, from a 16th to a 32d part, which he answered very
quickly. I next asked him the amount of 1 to 20 inclusive,
in arithmetical progression; which after a pause of a few mi-
nutes, and twirling his thumbs, as is usual for him to do when
at work, he gave me a true answer. I then told him, if he
would proceed to 50, I would give him sixpence, and if he
went on to a 100, I would give him a shilling; he then con-
tinued his work to 50, and desired to be excused the remain-
der till the morning, when he took up the question where he
left off, and gave me a true answer. 1 next asked him, if a
hundred stones were laid in a right line, a yard asunder, and
the first stone a yard from a basket, how far a man must run
to fetch them into a basket. He quickly went up to the 30th
stone, and would have done the remainder if I had promised
him more reward.
He keeps a very good account, by his memory only, what
he has given him from time to time, which is put into a box
to be kept for him ; and although it is very often put a penny,
or twopence, at a time, or whatever it is, he will tell the day
every sum was put in, and who gave it him, for two years
back, and how much is now in the box, though he has not
seen his bank told over from the first commencement of it.
Ann. Reg. 1765, p. 83.
NEGRO CALCULATOR.
By the report of Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, a pheno-
menon, equal, if not superior to that prodigy in calcu-
lation, Jedediah Buxton, has appeared in Maryland, in the
person of a black slave; this is more extraordinary, as it is
somewhere remarked, that few of the woolly-headed blacks
can go farther in the art of enumeration than the number 5.
The man being asked how many seconds a man of seventy
years, some odd months, weeks, and days, had lived ? in a
VOL. IV. to