True Colors: Mapping DC

Mapping DC is our homage to Benjamin Banneker, who lived from 1731-1806, in the USA. He was a Black man in a time when Black people were still being enslaved across America. He had a brilliant scientific/engineering mind, and he was instrumental in mapping out the original borders of Washington, DC. He had little formal schooling, and was, throughout his life, an almanac author, astronomer, surveyor, landowner, and farmer. Banneker was also a civil rights activist, and began a letter-writing relationship with Thomas Jefferson, calling him out on slave ownership. He told Jefferson that he hoped he would “readily embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions which so generally prevail with respect to us.” He shared his almanacs with Jefferson and pushed him in every exchange to recognize the humanity of the Black person. Bannaker never married, and was likely deeply closeted for his entire life. As his funeral was happening, his house burned down, thought to be the work of arsonists who could not stomach a Black man with the depth and breadth of knowledge and intelligence that lived in Benjamin Banneker.

This colorway used to be called Phoenix Tears.

We’re sharing Mapping DC made up into a shawl, paired with the lovely Aquamarine in Shannon’s The Ticket (in DK) and Squeezebox Cowl paired with Grey Wolf.

You can find all of our in-stock True Colors yarn on our website.