Slavery in Benjamin Banneker's Letter to Thomas Jefferson Essay Example

The US had its fundamental principles from the constitution based around the values of freedom, however, from the African American point of view, this pseudo-freedom that the American constitution bragged of was deprived by the presence of slavery. Because of this, Benjamin Banneker had the “spark” to write to Thomas Jefferson about his grievances and the contradictory nature of America’s current state of affairs, knowing that Jefferson had a big say in US legislation. Benjamin Banneker, to convince Thomas Jefferson to join him in the abolishment of slavery, writes about the unethicality of slavery as well as Jefferson’s hypocrisy of owning slaves by using rhetorical appeals such as biblical allusion, loaded diction, and parallelism. 

Banneker uses biblical allusion to convince Jefferson to support a pro-abolitionist stance on slavery. Banneker uses biblical allusion as a rhetorical choice to convince Jefferson to be in support of the abolishment of slavery. He is angry at how Jefferson, according to his belief of the universal right to freedom, believes that “all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” but is still doing the morally incorrect thing by owning slaves. He states that the rights of all men on earth are god-given and removing the rights of men (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness), would be against the teachings of the bible. By evoking religious morality, this rhetorical technique achieves the overall purpose, using religion as a means to justify the equality of all men. By setting aside all of the differences in values they both have and only bringing up both of their “creator’s” teachings, Banneker says slavery violates the teachings of God.

 Banneker also used parallelism to convince Jefferson to join his cause. Reminding Jefferson about when he fought the British in a situation “which even hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability” where they believed in their “providential preservation.” He speaks of the hypocrisy of how the very patriots that fought for their own freedom resorted to taking away others’ freedoms, in this case, African Americans. The parallelism of African Americans and Colonial Americans having “hope and fortitude” suggests that the situations of these two groups aren’t so different, and these same actions are just being caused by different groups of people. This perspective he gives Thomas Jefferson makes it more likely for Jefferson to understand the strikingly similar situation both of these people are in. The picture of “hope and fortitude” both of these parties shared also helps Jefferson to make the realization that the very essence of slavery is unjust. This ties into the purpose of convincing Jefferson to support the abolishment of slavery by highlighting similarities with Jefferson’s point of view, and Banneker’s point of view. 

Banneker uses loaded diction to say that Jefferson, although knowing the plight of slaves, still subjects them to prejudice that the British had once imposed on them. Banneker supposes “that [Jefferson’s] knowledge of the situation of [Banneker’s] brethren is too extensive to need a recital here,” then insinuates Jefferson “and all others to wean yourselves from those narrow prejudices which you have imbibed with respect to them” and stop the hypocrisy of owning slaves, and taking away their freedom after fighting for Jefferson’s very own. This achieves the purpose of convincing Jefferson to support the abolishment of slavery by using strong wording to give Jefferson more of a chance to emotionally agree with Banneker. Using words like “narrow” and “prejudice” would give reason to believe that slavery was morally misguided, and hypocritical to do in the instance of maintaining it even after fighting for one’s own liberties. If Jefferson is the reasonable man Bannecker assumes he is, then it will convince him to take on Banneker’s philosophies and be in support of the abolishment of slavery.