"Sir I freely and cheerfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race, and in that color 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 thralldom, and inhuman captivity, to which too many of my brethren are doomed; but that I have abundantly tasted the fruition of those blessings which proceed from that free and unequaled liberty with which you are favored 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

             "([Banneker 190) .

             His admittance that he was not enslaved, and that he was not under the oppression of the rich, white man, was important to the power of the letter, which was most definitely had an important impact on Jefferson. .

             To the slave, in America, the celebration of freedom was absent. There was no liberation. There was no release from the oppression that they were dealt with. There was no reason to celebrate the Fourth of July like any other white American would, because it meant nothing to them. Frederick Douglass wrote about this in his "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" piece. Unlike Banneker, Douglass was born a slave in Maryland. He first hand experienced the unjust treatment of African Americans which made Jefferson"s "All men are created equal" part of the Declaration totally seem false in the "All men" sense. How could Jefferson mean this, when he was in fact the owner of slaves; people just like Frederick Douglass, and other potential brilliant minds. Douglass wrote, .

             "The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable – and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight.