In Benjamin Banneker's letter to former US president Thomas Jefferson, he argues that humans are equal because a "Father" has "afforded us all the same sensations and endowed us all with the same faculties." Yet we see in Equanio's text various encounters with African and European slave-traders that suggest human beings are not, somehow, equal: after all, how can we explain the horrors that Equiano witnessed on the slave ship? If humans all felt the "same sensations," then wouldn't the slave-traders have been incapable of practing slavery, and enforcing it through such lethal methods?
For their blogs, students should tentatively offer answers to these questions. First, students will introduce and summarize the main claims made by Banneker in his letter to Jefferson. Then, students will introduce and summarize Equiano's experiences on the slave ship. After they have adequetely summarized both texts, students will begin a new paragraph. In this paragraph, they will share with readers their thoughts to the questions above.
The blog should be addressed to LaGuarida students and faculty who are not members of this class. Blogs should be between 250-400 words.
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