Benjamin Banneker In the time of 1791, America was on the brink of war. Though the cause of this war was rooted on many incidents adding up and festering, they all revolved around one particular topic- slavery. Slavery is ingrained as a rather large portion of American history and eliminating it from practice was a battle all on its own. As a plea to Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Banneker wrote an emotionally charged letter as an attempt to sway him against this practice. In this letter, Banneker utilizes many important rhetorical devices that are crucial to his message. Through parallelism, repetition, and emotional appeal, Banneker effectively displays his beliefs towards the topic. Banneker begins his letter by discussing the “tyranny of