Benjamin Banneker was a free African American in the 1800's. In his lifetime he was an author and a surveyor, along with other things. He was mostly self taught, being colored it was hard for him to get in schools. In his life he went through many struggles, finding ways to learn or get schooled, finding jobs he was accepted in and could successfully make a life from. Many people struggle with these things but in those times for a person like him it was even harder.
Benjamin's work career was ever changing, he was a surveyor, an author, a naturalist and a farmer. As i said before it was difficult to find work in those days, he was colored, so nobody accepted him. He most likely went to lots of different unsuccessful jobs and many more that
