The Foul Reign of Self-Reliance

Ralph Waldo Emerson includes the importance of self reliance in his writing, "Self-Reliance." In order to get readers to agree with him, he had to appeal to their emotions, reasoning and trust. An appeal to emotions is pathos. An appeal to reasoning is logos. An appeal to trust is ethos. The use of ethos, pathos, and logos to appeal to readers also helped convey the central purpose of his writing.

Son of former slaves, farmer, astronomer, and author Benjamin Banneker in his letter to Thomas Jefferson in asserts that slavery is erroneous and should be discontinued. During this time period, slaves had no rights or freedom, slaves were property. Banneker was a slavery abolitionist, and wanted to help African Americans. Banneker adopts a respectful yet vexed tone in order to criticize and accuse Thomas Jefferson of being a hypocrite. Thomas Jefferson wrote the lines, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”, but he himself owned slaves, so this describes he did not want liberty for African American slaves. Banneker is offended and vexed, judging Jefferson as a hypocrite. Banneker achieves his purpose of judging Jefferson through his prominent use of diction.

In Benjamin Banneker’s letter to Thomas Jefferson (1791), Banneker argues to Jefferson about the wrongdoing, hypocritical cruel state of slavery. To do so, Banneker incorporated how slavery is wrong into the Declaration of Independence. Banneker uses irony, allusion, and tone in his letter in order to appeal to Jefferson to take a step to abolish slavery, especially because he is look up to for his creation of the Declaration of Independence, which is also looked up to by American citizens. Banneker uses irony when he quotes “We hold these truths… life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This is a line from the Declaration of Independence written by Jefferson.

Banneker continues to use Jefferson’s piece by referring Jefferson’s words that, the rights which all humans have are bestowed on them by God. Banker argues that slavery counteracts God’s mercies “in detaining my brethren under groaning captivity”. He goes on to say that Jefferson “should cut the same time be found guilty of that most criminal act which you professedly detested in others with respect to yourselves”. These lines reiterate the fact that Jefferson is once agin employing hypocrisy. He writes that God has bestowed rights upon all humans which cannot be taken away but Jefferson attempt to take them away through the act of slavery. Banneker states that the the base upon which america is built upon is the thing they are found guilty of disregarding.

First, Benjamin Banneker reasons African Americans are equal to white men in order to argue that slavery is morally wrong. For example, through the repetition of the word the ‘Sir’, Banneker not only shows respect towards Thomas Jefferson, but portrays himself as someone knowledgeable. This helps Banneker argue that is slavery is morally wrong because it shatters the notion of African Americans being inferior to white people due to Banneker, who is an African American, writing a letter in a dignified manner. Also, it helps the argument by appealing to Thomas Jefferson’s ego and sense of worth. The repetition of ‘sir’ makes it more difficult for Jefferson to become angry at Banneker for being insolent because it doesn’t antagonize Jefferson, but recognizes the difference in authority and position between Banneker and Jefferson while showing that Banneker himself, who is an African American, is capable and educated. Through sentences “… you have mercifully received and that is the peculiar blessing of heaven”, “blessings to which you were entitled by nature”, and “… benevolence of the Father of mankind and of equal and impartial distribution of those right…” Mr. Banneker appeals to Jefferson through religion. This religious appeal aids the argument that slavery is wrong because it works as the premise to a syllogism; God has made all men equal, African Americans and white people are men, so they are equal. For Jefferson to dispute this argument, he would have to defy the premise of his own Declaration of Independence (“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are create equal…”) which would mean the loss of the justification Americans had to declare independence from Great Britain. Also, Banneker speaks to Jefferson’s own values as a religious man by arguing that he is opposing God’s goodwill in the

The letter from Banneker to Jefferson integrates extremely knowledgeable and formal diction in contention against the issue of slavery. The advanced level of language introduced by Banneker is another contributing component to his believability on his position against subjugation. A few great instances of Banneker's diction are in the words "abhorrence" in line 18, "benevolence" in line 32, and the phrase "professedly detested" in line 40, all of these showing the great knowledge that he carries. Banneker’s education has the potential to prove to Jefferson that black people can be on the same level as white people despite being put below white people as their slaves. In the second paragraph of his writing, Benjamin uses his knowledge of the time period when the United States was under British rule, inviting Jefferson to recall the "injustice" and the "horrors of its condition”. In doing so, he compares this to the slavery of black people during his own current state of life. In lines 35-38 of Banneker’s letter, it is stated, "that you should at the same time counteract his (God's) mercies in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of

Benjamin Banneker utilizes fear tactics to efficiently drive his point of abolishing slavery home. In his letter he states, “you cannot but acknowledge that the present freedom of mercifully received and that it is the peculiar blessings of Heaven”(Banneker 11). This quote displays fear tactics directed at Jefferson and Washington because he is implying that even though everything is tranquil now because of the blessings from heaven, it will not be if slavery continues. Therefore, making Thomas Jefferson and George Washington fearful of what Benjamin Banneker will do or what will happen if slavery is not abolished. Making the two men fearful is an effective way for Benjamin to get his point

Slavery was a terrible thing, it was brutal and violent. When people went to fight against its existence, they needed evidence to prove to people it's inhumaneness. Sadly this fight for abolition of slavery was long and slow going. Benjamin Banneker was a son of former slaves who argued against slavery in a great way what made it great was that he used many helpful points and rhetorical devices to strengthen his argument.

The allusions packing a punch worthy of recognition with Banneker turning Jefferson’s words to support his reasonable argument for the people to “wean” themselves from prejudices. Banneker not only takes Jefferson’s words from the famous Declaration of Independence, but also spends time praising the Declaration unveiling a double meaning. The double meaning presents the respect for the Declaration, however, also in a sense that implicates the need for the words to actually be enforced in all areas. The other allusion to the Bible adds the power from the religious zeal presents at that

In the 1791 Letter sent to Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Banneker uses religious appeal, sympathetic diction, and repetition to passively advocate that slavery isn’t moral and should be abolished.

In the making of the American Government, the Declaration of Independence was formed based on the Christian judgment of Thomas Jefferson. In the publication of this document, the ethics of Jefferson were questioned when the absence of the abolishment of slavery was noticed. Benjamin Banneker, an educated African American, uncovers and reveals Thomas Jefferson’s honorable facade through and overbearing euphemistic tone, religious questioning, and guilt to emphasize Jefferson’s flaws in his theological and political morality in hopes to rebuke the institution.

Benjamin Banneker, a son of a former slave, in the letter that he wrote to Thomas Jefferson proposes a series of arguments against slavery through a sequence of rhetorical devices. He poses his position of slavery by criticizing Jefferson by how he treated slaves. He uses repetitive religious terms that are familiar to Jefferson against him. Banneker does this to guarantee that Jefferson feels guilty. He starts off with the religious phrase “blessing of Heaven” as the freedom that men/women have and enjoy is a blessing. Banneker uses a phrase from the Declaration of Independence “are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights”. When Jefferson wrote this in the Declaration, he used context of out three unalienable rights “life,

Voltaire's Candide is a short satirical novel based on the life, adventures, and ultimate enlightenment of the title character Candide. The novel was subtitled ironically, The Optimist, in reference to a type of philosophy prevalent in Voltaire's day, which the author found repellant. Candide is his answer to optimism as a philosophy. Likewise, Samuel Johnson's Rasselas presents a worldview (according to the philosopher Imlac) that at times appears to be somewhat stilted. Not as cynical or satirical as Candide, however, the hero Rasselas learns lessons about life that to a certain extent elude Voltaire's hero. This paper will show how Johnson's Rasselas learns to be satisfied with pursuing his vocation as prince and "administer [of] justice" (Johnson 197), while Voltaire's Candide learns that man is essentially doomed to suffer from his own folly and ignorance in the ironically dubbed "best of all possible worlds" (Voltaire 14).

In the book of Richard Whelan, Self-Reliance, Whelan had rewritten the “Spiritual Laws” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Whelan explains more of what Emerson was trying to say in his essay. Emerson states that divine determines everything. He also states that people should check their soul and go in that direction. Spiritual law is the law of nature where every man has talent, and when they believe in themselves and uses it without resistance, they will gain success that he can enjoy.

More than any other sphere of human endeavor it seems that economics reveals the weakness in humanity 's attempts to both unite as one larger whole, and to maintain separate national identities. Efforts to create a unified front, are slow and challenged by Westphalian conceptions of state sovereignty. Efforts to preserve states individuality and self-reliance reveal the human suffering that was commonplace before globalization began to 'smooth out ' the economic extremes experienced in localized areas.