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Rhetorical Analysis Of Benjamin Banneker

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Benjamin Banneker hopes to bring the horrors of slavery to Thomas Jefferson’s attention and potentially end slavery. He accomplishes this with his logical organization of his essay, appeals to pathos and ethos, comparisons, flattery, positive and negative diction, allusions, examples, parallelism, and a call-to-action. Banneker respectfully reminds Thomas Jefferson of how horrible it was under Great Britain’s “tyranny” and compares this to slavery. By comparing the suffering in slavery to the suffering the U.S. endured under Great Britain. Banneker addresses Thomas Jefferson as “sir” and compliments him, building him up. He is using flattery to potentially get Jefferson on his side. Banneker uses positive diction throughout the first paragraph.
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Benjamin Banneker effectively convinces Jefferson to end slavery through his use of imagery, allusions, and figurative language. One of the main literary devices Benjamin Banneker uses is imagery. The use of imagery throughout the paper, allows the audience to create a clearer picture. Imagery is also useful for demonstrating and conveying ideas. An example of imagery, “reflect on that time in which every human aid appeared unavailable.”

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In 1791, a son of former slaves by the name of Benjamin Banneker, wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson about his belief and standpoint on slavery with major rhetorical responses backing his standpoint up. Banneker starts off his letter and continues throughout it by stating “sir.” He does this knowingly as it is a sign of respect and the fact Jefferson has more authority than him, as Jefferson was the Secretary of State at the time under President George Washington, and hoping to have Jefferson and other high and powerful men consider his point of view. Predating back to the early 1700’s, slaves were merely legal property in the United States, meaning the slaves had no rights. Free black men and women had no rights either.

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Banneker uses multiple rhetorical devices to argue against slavery and create a sense of guilt in Jefferson. Jefferson’s guilt trip starts by Banneker using logos in his first paragraph. He starts off by reminding Jefferson that, “the British Crown were exerted with every powerful effort in order to reduce you [Jefferson] to a state of servitude.” With this, Banneker establishes that Jefferson was one of the numerous colonists that felt the colonies should not be under British rule. Also, Banneker builds on to the fact that Jefferson was once a servant himself, consequently starting to guilt Jefferson, since Jefferson supports slavery despite once being a “servant” himself.

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Benjamin Banneker, in his letter to Thomas Jefferson, offers a series of arguments against the institution of slavery through a respectful tone, references to history, and the Bible. As a son of former slaves, Banneker is seeking justice for the black population and uses Jefferson’s own words against him as he speaks on behalf of “Black America.” He shares his opinions with Jefferson, who is higher authority, in a respectful manner while still managing to criticize him. Banneker starts off his letter to Jefferson by calling his “Sir.” He refers to Jefferson this way because he wants to be respectful to this man who exists as a higher authority as a politician.

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“Let my people go”1 is the statement Banneker communicates to Thomas Jefferson in his letter. Banneker pleads this by utilizing different means to sway Jefferson’s opinion about the continuance of slavery, as God, through Moses, did to Pharaoh for the Israelites. However, instead of a plague, swarm of locusts, or blood in the water, Banneker exhibits biblical allusions, Jefferson’s personal work, and a respectful and educated tone. In the beginning, Banneker recaps America’s recent history of their emancipation from the British Crown.

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Olaudah Equiano was a slave since he was 13. When he got to the age of 21 his proprietor permitted him to purchase himself off of subjugation, and in this story he is educating us regarding how he felt about being a slave and how it was extremely frightful to be a slave on a boat with being a starved, encompassed by affliction, and abuse. Benjamin Banneker letter to, Thomas Jefferson was considered as challenge writing since he was composing a chronicle to secretary of state Thomas Jefferson in acknowledgment on the most proficient method to abrogating subjugation ought to be. Banneker felt in Jefferson 's life he ought to concur with him that servitude was really merciless and only

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Farmer, astronomer and author Benjamin Banneker in his untitled letter strongly argues against slavery. Banneker's purpose is to argue and persuade against slavery and explain how it's unjustified at a time after the American Revolution and during a time when the House of Burgesses took away African's rights and made them forever bound to slavery brought by the slave codes. He adopts a serene tone in order to calmly and professionally expound on the ideas that he's going to explain to show why slavery is unjustified in his letter to a man of higher authority. Banneker achieves his purpose/tone through the use of diction and figurative language.

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Slavery has sadly been in America from the start. Many have different opinions about slavery whether it should stay or be abandoned and forgotten. Although one person has written to Thomas Jefferson about one of history’s most important subject. Banneker starts it off by writing his strong views on how wrong slavery is not just listing all the problems, but in a letter that he uses strategies to make his view convincing. Benjamin Banneker uses rhetorical strategies such as ethos, logos, and various style elements to argue against slavery.

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The quote also appeals to Jefferson’s emotions because Banneker makes him feel guilty about slavery. Jefferson

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The letter was understandably harsh and severe, but Banneker does this in such a humble manner, that his opinion on slavery can not be argued by Jefferson. Jefferson absolutely has to accept what Banneker is saying because of how he portrayed, and wrote his letter. Banneker starts the letter off with referring to Jefferson as ‘Sir’, and does this in every paragraph to solidify and ensure that he is being polite while still getting his point across. This was to make Jefferson believe what Banneker was saying, to show Jefferson that he does have respect towards him and that he is taking this letter seriously so Jefferson should too. Banneker does this to help Jefferson believe that Banneker knows what he is talking about, that he is credible, so he can fix his moral dilemma, and help him make the choice toward ending

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Banneker uses logos, anaphora, pathos, and juxtaposition to create a respectful but critical tone, with phrases such as “freedom and tranquility”, his repetition of “sir” and his continued treatment of Jefferson as a student who has the knowledge but is not applying themselves. Banneker’s tone throughout the letter is that of great respect for Jefferson as a person, and as an equal, but little respect for his opinions and use of power such as in the Declaration of Independence. He uses logos to emphasize this earnest respect that he has with sentences like “I suppose your knowledge of the situation of my brethren is too extensive to need a recital here”, where he uses logos to both point out that he knows Jefferson has the knowledge, but

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I believe that Franklin wrote the phrase “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” as Franklin's argumentative style uses persuasion,friendliness, and the truth while staying simple. All those traits are shown in the phrase there are no sings of aggressiveness, sounds friendly, and is persuasive. It's stated in Franklin on junto paragraph 1 that junto focused on "the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of victory; and, to prevent warmth".

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he uses bold words and biting criticism to call attention to the gross injustices and hypocrisy of slavery in the United States. In the opening remarks of his speech, Douglas provides heart-wrenching descriptions to pull his audience into the lives of their fellow

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From this, derives a bond with the reader that pushes their understanding of the evil nature of slavery that society deemed appropriate therefore enhancing their understanding of history. While only glossed over in most classroom settings of the twenty-first century, students often neglect the sad but true reality that the backbone of slavery, was the dehumanization of an entire race of people. To create a group of individuals known for their extreme oppression derived from slavery, required plantation owner’s of the South to constantly embedded certain values into the lives of their slaves. To talk back means to be whipped.

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Benjamin Banneker, the son of former slaves, wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson to argue against slavery. Banneker was an educated man, he was an astronomer, mathematician, surveyor, author, and farmer, yet, Jefferson had not known this information. Banneker makes his argument through the use of allusion, diction, and repetition, which causes Banneker to seem reliable and have intelligence. To remind Jefferson of his own subjugation, Banneker alludes to the British Crown. “..British Crown were exerted with every powerful effort in order to reduce you to a State of Servitude.”

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