Blog two: Contradictions

    Benjamin Banneker was a educated, successful, and respected African American man during the mid-late 1700’s.  Banneker wrote Thomas Jefferson who at the time was Secretary of State a letter in order to open Jefferson eyes to the many injustices that were going on to the Blacks as well as the Declaration of Independence.  “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, and that among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  To help prove his point Banneker in his letter to Jefferson used this statement as an example of a contradiction.  The issue Banneker has is that if the Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal, then why aren’t all men being treated and viewed as equals.  The Colonists were in a sense dehumanized and treated sub par by the British Crown so in hopes Jefferson could relate, Banneker asks him to put himself in the position of the slaves and put his soul in their souls’ as the Prophet Job suggested.  If Jefferson believes that the Universal Father has given life to all of us and that he has endowed us all the same feelings and rights no matter what class, religion, or race, we are all the same family and are considered equal under this higher power, then he would not need any reminders from Banneker to do the right thing.   The right thing of course being the abolishment of slavery and to enforce the words and the meanings of the Declaration of Independence which Jefferson helped write, and make them more then just words on a paper, make them a reality.  Banneker is appealing to Jefferson’s higher self.