Benjamin Banneker Rhetorical Analysis

Benjamin Banneker’s opinion on the topic of slavery was very strong because he wanted to persuade the audience against slavery and that owning another human being was unjust. Banneker uses the rhetorical strategies in his writings and manipulates the strategies to his best advantage so that he can properly convey his message to the intended audience. Banneker recalls previous events as a type of flashback to further his point in why slavery should be banned and Banneker also uses a type of implied irony in his argument as well to talk about how ironic it would be if slavery was not abolished. Banneker uses these methods to convince the reader of his message on his argument against slavery and the practice of owning slaves. Without the use of a rhetorical strategy in the writing, it would just be flat opinions but no persuasiveness added to it. All of these strategies make it seem as though it would be virtuous to be against slavery and bad even sinful to be for slavery. …show more content…
Very commonly Banneker refers back to previous events that have happened prior to the events of the writing of these words. Banneker refers back to the revolutionary war against Britain and compares it to the war against slavery. Banneker quotes the declaration of independence, “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 liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” this is important because throughout time that quote has been used to state that all human beings are created as equal and should be treated none the less. This flashback shows us that if Thomas Jefferson refuses to agree with Banneker, Jefferson would be doing similiar to what Britain did to America and he does not want that to happen. The colonies rebelled for this very exact reason and it would be terrible for Jefferson to do this act