Banneker

In this piece I explained the rhetorical structures and different examples that Benjamin Banneker uses in a letter written to Thomas Jefferson regarding slavery in 1791. He uses show hypocrisy, uses the example of Britain and how they treated the colonies and he uses the Declaration of Independence to show ethos. He himself has ethos because he is the son of a slave and he is a very intelligent and educated man. I also explain the Banneker uses diction to give a pathos appeal. He uses words like suffer, tyranny, pitiable, groaning captivity and cruel oppression to show the bitterness of the situation. Finally I explain how he uses sarcasm and irony to show logos. He uses sir sarcastically and different examples to show sarcasm and also to show that it is kind of ridiculous that he would write the Declaration and then stand for this treatment of people. He also uses that same thing to show irony. Benjamin Banneker uses many different types of persuasion and many arguments towards the subject of how his brethren were being unfairly treated. He uses personal experiences, the Declaration of Independence and other things that Jefferson was involved in. He uses all these to give examples of Jefferson’s hypocrisy and unfairness. Banneker uses ethos in his dispatch to infiltrate Jefferson’s character regarding his actions toward slavery, immoral treatment and the captivity of his fellow Americans. Jefferson wrote in the Declaration “We hold these truths to be self evident 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.” Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence stating our freedom as a country from England’s unfair treatment. To this Banneker asks how the slavery situation is any different. Jefferson is asked to look back at the tyranny of the British Crown was exerted with powerful effort in order to reduce you to a State of Servitude. He tells him to look back on the dangers, the time which every human aid appeared unavailable. Banneker then states that Jefferson counteracts his mercies detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression. He says that Jefferson should at the same time be found guilty of that most criminal act which Jefferson professedly detested in others with respect to himself and his people. Banneker bombards Jefferson with many hypocritical instances of which Jefferson partakes. Pathos is used in this passage mainly in Banneker’s diction. Banneker starts the piece writing respectfully using “sir” to address Jefferson, but as the piece progresses, sarcasm can be detected in Banneker’s writing. He also uses words such as suffer and tyranny to bring forth an emotional setting and sets a tone of pain of the past. As the piece moves forth, Banneker starts using words like “just apprehensions” and “horrors” to describe the time of sorrow and pain of the Revolutionary War. Further into the extract we see him use words like “fraud”, “groaning captivity” and “cruel oppression” to show and describe the gruesome acts and the horrifying days of segregation and slavery. Banneker’s eloquence in his writing changes the tone of the piece as the events move forward and his arguments change. Banneker uses irony and sarcasm in his letter to kind of show a small bit of frustration and appall with Jefferson at his decisions and actions toward slavery. Banneker starts by respectfully addressing Jefferson as sir many times, but by the last paragraph of the letter shows a sense of sarcasm as if to say that Jefferson does not deserve the respect due to his immoral actions of hypocrisy. He uses irony in the piece by showing that Jefferson wrote the Declaration because Britain was unfairly treating them and that it should be stopped. Banneker emphasizes the things Jefferson wrote in the Declaration. That all men are created equal, that they have unalienable rights. To these things he wonders why he and his brothers are being so unfairly and immorally treated. Against everything Jefferson has previously stood for.