Benjamin Banneker Uses Logos to Establish His Arguments Essay

Benjamin Banneker, a slave, farmer, astronomer, surveyor, and author, establishes ethos, pathos, and logos in his letter to Thomas Jefferson. This letter was composed in order to exhibit Bannekers view on the crying shame of slavery. Banneker uses multiple rhetoric strategies in his letter to help convey his arguments. These rhetoric strategies consist of repetition, allusion, and moral dilemma. Furthermore, Banneker uses sophisticated diction in an appealing manner, without the use of low or sarcastic phrases. Banneker uses logos when establishing his argument. He explains to Jefferson that Jefferson is repeating the same actions that he had found unjust when he was under the British Crown. In his letter, Banneker adds an allusion to the Declaration of Independence, which Jefferson was the framer of. This allusion plays a key role in Bannekers argument because it demonstrates that Thomas Jefferson is counteracting his belief of individuals having the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In addition, Banneker includes that Jefferson enjoys his freedom and tranquility which he mercifully received. Banneker also includes that Jefferson enjoyed this freedom to prove that Jefferson would rather freedom over being controlled meanwhile he is contradicting himself by controlling the slaves. He uses the rhetoric strategy of logos to prove that Jefferson is going against what he once believed in.Pathos was another rhetoric strategy used by Banneker in the making of his argument to abolish slavery. He believed that Jefferson should have empathy for the slaves. Banneker proves that Jefferson is also creating a moral dilemma by not adhering to what he had once found true, which was that slavery was unjust and needed to come to an end. This sir, was a time in which you clearly saw into the injustice of a state of slavery and in which you had just apprehensions of the horrors of its condition, it was now, sir, that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you publicly held forth this true...

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