Rhetorical Analysis Of Benjamin Banneker Letter
In the letter, Benjamin Banneker, a son of former slaves, farmer, astronomer, mathematician and author, wrote to President George Washington in 1791 he argues against the practice of slavery. Banneker supports his argument by using emotional appeal and alluding to the declaration of independence and the Bible. Banneker uses these methods in order to convince Washington of the wrongs of slavery. With the letter being written with the sole audience of President Washington it has a respectful but critical to as to get his point across but not impolite while doing so. Banneker successfully uses these strategies to present an argument to Washington about how immoral slavery is and why it should be abolished.
Banneker first had Washington think about when “that time in which the arms and tyranny of the British Crown were exerted with every powerful effort in order to reduce you to a state of servitude” (1). This allows Washington to better understand the point Banneker is attempting to make about slavery due to the fact that he can relate to the past experience that he had. Thus invoking a sense of sympathy from him because of the similarities brought up between the two instances.
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This is done to point out the hypocrisy of the Declaration of Independence and the practice of slavery. If all men were created equal and bestowed those three unattainable rights, then slavery wouldn’t exist. Slavery takes away most if not all of those rights and should not be in practice if people were to follow the Declaration of
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