In Early American texts, through written history, the authors learn the importance of knowing human nature. Jonathan Edwards, Olaudah Equiano, and Thomas Jefferson all have distinctive views of human nature through the relationship of the government, law, and equality. They use rhetorical strategies to show how human nature is cruel and brutal, believing humans should be carefully understood to be protected from being manipulated and to understand where it stands in society. Jonathan Edwards views human nature as sinful, in which people are already sentenced to hell by God. He believes that God is presented as being omniscient and powerful, aware of all of the sinful acts committed by every individual person. In “Sinners in the Hands of an
