Read the passage.
excerpt from Benjamin Banneker's letter to Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Banneker was a free man descended from African slaves. In his letter to Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State, Banneker condemned slavery and attempted to persuade Jefferson to end the practice of slavery in the United States.
I am fully sensible of the greatness of that freedom which I take with you on the present occasion; a liberty which Seemed to me scarcely allowable, when I reflected on that distinguished, and dignifyed station in which you Stand; and the almost general prejudice and prepossession which is so prevailent in the world against those of my complexion.
I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you, to need a proof here, that we are a race of Beings who have long laboured under the abuse and censure of the world, that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt, and that we have long been considered rather as brutish than human, and Scarcely capable of mental endowments.
Sir I freely and Chearfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race, and in that colour which is natural to them of the deepest dye, and it is under a Sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, that I now confess to you, that I am not under that State of tyrannical thraldom, and inhuman captivity, to which too many of my brethren are doomed; but that I have abundantly tasted of the fruition of those blessings which proceed from that free and unequalled liberty with which you are favoured and which I hope you will willingly allow you have received from the immediate hand of that Being, from whom proceedeth every good and perfect gift.
Question
Which analysis most effectively explains a key concept presented in Benjamin Banneker's letter to Thomas Jefferson?
Responses
Banneker refutes some incorrect ideas about the brutality of slavery and the divide it has caused between blacks and whites.
Banneker refutes some incorrect ideas about the brutality of slavery and the divide it has caused between blacks and whites.
Banneker asserts that there are essential differences between blacks and whites that go beyond skin color and prevent the two groups from communicating constructively.
Banneker asserts that there are essential differences between blacks and whites that go beyond skin color and prevent the two groups from communicating constructively.
Banneker claims that although blacks and whites worship different gods and disagree on many issues, the two races can still live in harmony.
Banneker claims that although blacks and whites worship different gods and disagree on many issues, the two races can still live in harmony.
Banneker points out that although both blacks and whites were created by the same Being who gives freedom and equality to all people, whites deny blacks those rights.