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Slavery In Ronald Takaki's A Different Mirror

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In Chapter 3 of A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki, he attempts to understand the hidden origins of slavery. In this essay, I will describe and analyze how Takaki uses race, ethnicity, historical events, and famous people to have a better understanding of slavery. We know that slavery itself is a system where an individual owns, buys, or sells another individual. The Irish served as indentured servants, not just blacks, but as time passed slavery consisted of just African Americans. The Virginia colony intended to reproduce into an English society when they settled. With tobacco becoming a huge crop in Virginia, they invested heavily in servants to help with the plantations, “Our principal wealth…. consisteth in servants.” (Takaki 53). Whites …show more content…

In multiple letters and notes he wrote he expressed his guilt for the slaves and once the slaves paid off their debt and Jefferson’s he hoped to free them. Jefferson and his slaves remained in debt until the day he died. Jefferson believed that slavery not only deprived blacks of their liberty but had an “unhappy” influence on the masters and their children (Takaki 63). If a master is constantly punishing a slave and cannot restrain, the child’s master will imitate and master it, resulting in a nonstop cycle of slavery. Jefferson wanted to abolish slavery but when freed they had to be removed from society since slaves took up most of Virginia’s population. In order to have a “disappearance” of an entirely black population Jefferson deported the future generation by shipping infants to Haiti. Jefferson believed deportation was the best solution because blacks and whites couldn’t coexist in America because of the nature of our color and intelligence. Blacks were “inferior” and were not capable of Christian virtue and salvation (Takaki 65). Many African Americans challenged Jefferson with evidence of what they are capable of but Jefferson refused to change his “opinion” (Takaki

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In the letter to Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Banneker, it is evident that Banneker uses the rhetorical strategies of humility, religious references, and historical references to create a foundation for a rational and favorable argument against slavery. Banneker is clearly a well-educated man with a background of respectable talents (“…farmer, astronomer, mathematician…” etc.). However, he does not allow his knowledge to condescend towards the white man to whom he is writing. Banneker’s humility is a rhetorical device that contributes to the argument against slavery. Never in the letter does Banneker refer to Jefferson by name.

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This quote is used in order to show that under british control americans were enslaved too, and how wrong that was. This forces jefferson to relate to the slaves and see how they

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The art of persuasion, rhetoric, has allowed speakers and writers to influence others with their words, and Benjamin Banneker uses various compositional techniques in an attempt to liberate his people. He challenges Thomas Jefferson’s pro slavery views by criticizing his racist, and hypocritical, views of blatant human persecution. The vile institution of slavery was an issue that Americans during Banneker’s time blindly accepted. By using allusions to American history, Banneker attempted to prove that Jefferson was a hypocrite of his own American beliefs. Banneker makes a plethora of references to Jefferson’s hypocrisy, such as the line “you cannot acknowledge that the present freedom and tranquility which you enjoy you have mercifully received and that it is the peculiar blessing of Heaven”.

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Banneker talks about how Jefferson and people like him (white) have “miraculous and providential preservations” and how Banneker and his people “suffer” and “variety of dangers”. Jefferson and his people fought for freedom and got it and were now able to be how ever they want, while the slaves have to deal with the same treatment as before. By pointing this out he shows how Jefferson is being no better than those he fought against. Therefore for everything they fought for to be true to the core, they must put an end to slaveholding. Banneker uses irony again in his use of grotesque language to show the injustice of slavery.

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To a time in the young country’s history that was so bad that not even “hope and fortitude” could make matters better. Banneker wanted him to realize that they had just successfully completed the first colonial uprising in history, laid their lives on the line in order to benefit people they have never met before, saw the blood shed of loved ones, watched families be destroyed, in order to achieve the “freedom and tranquility” that is a “percular blessing of Heaven” only to deny that freedom to the black part of the population. Even though Jefferson “clearly saw…the injustice…of slavery” and that his “abhorrence” was so strong that he believed it was “worthy to be recorded” in a document that would be “remembered in all succeeding ages;” yet he still saw it fit to continue this practice of enslavement. Banneker went on to actually quote the Declaration of Independence and

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In "Jefferson & The Problem of Slavery", Takaki explains how despite Jefferson opposing slavery, he did not believe the races where equal. He wanted to send Africans away, but believed just sending all of them away would be impractical and expensive. So instead, he wanted to take children away from their slave parents, assimilate them, then send them to another country. One example of his views on slaver in general was that Jefferson claimed he felt guilty about owning slaves, and said he'd free them once his debt was gone. Despite the fact he felt guilty, he believed that his race, Caucasians, were superior to the Africans.

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That being the case, Jefferson’s authority over the continued development of slavery was solidified, not caring to acknowledge the enslaved persons of the 13 colonies while cultivating the Declaration. Consequently, Banneker subtly recognizes the authoritative power and works of Jefferson, particularly through the ideals expressed in the Declaration. Through his letter, Banneker cites the most notable verse of the document that “...all men are created equal” and born with “unalienable rights” to the object freedoms of “life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Subsequently, Banneker retains his respective attitude toward Jefferson’s accomplishments while reapplying Jefferson’s own words to the concept of slavery. While highlighting how political leaders and many white citizens in the US possess access to these “present freedom[s]” of equality throughout the United States per the Declaration, Banneker repurposes the document to improve his credibility, solidifying his argument that the current slaves did not preserve these same freedoms.

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Virginian landowners did not see the need to incorporate slavery nor wanted to participate in the practices that occurred in the West Indies since most of the Virginians were individuals who wanted to settle in Virginia with their families, rather than the businessmen who would return to England like it was in the Caribbean (Takaki 52). Eventually, due to the boom of tobacco as a commodity and the potential of its production overseas, more servants were needed to provide for the demand of labor. Some estates valued their indentured blacks more than their white counterparts, Takaki provides documents showing a landowner’s inventory and the differences in their production in comparison between black and white servants; this fluctuation can be attributed to blacks becoming indentured for significantly longer periods then those white servants from Ireland (Takaki 55-56). Because of the lack of regulation with indentured servants and the disenfranchisement of blacks, the trend began to shift from blacks indentured for life to selling blacks as property; during this period of time, wealthy landowners gained control of Virginian Assembly and pushed any ordinance that would benefit their business’s (Takaki 58).

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