Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King, Jr - Essay Example

Thomas Jefferson entered college at the age of seventeen and studied law (Hollis, 2009). The gentleman would study for a whopping fifteen hours or even more in a single day, he successfully completed his law course and later became a lawyer in the state of Virginia. He built a home which was referred to as Monticello and married Martha who later died nineteen years before Jefferson became the president of the United States (Hollis, 2009). He served as a state secretary under George Washington's regime, vice president in John Adams’ regime, and the United States' 3rd President in 1801. After serving two terms as the United States president he went back to his Monticello and practiced farming, where he grew various types of fruits and vegetables. He died on 4th July 1826 (Hollis, 2009).

Audience
Thomas Jefferson had both public and private audiences.  He addressed his audience by use of personal letters, public addresses, and scientific and political accounts. He never used poetry or fiction as one of the methods of delivering the message to his audience. Major themes to his audience included moral and political equality, complexity in culture and nature, and scientific interests. He was very successful with his audience since he was able to convey the message that touched the lives of his audience, his themes were irresistible to the audience and his methods of message delivery to both private and public audiences were just but so fascinating (Hollis, 2009).

Purposes
Thomas Jefferson served as the state secretary under the regime of George Washington, Vice president in the regime of John Adams, and the United States president in 1801. Jefferson believed in one God and that Jesus Christ remained one of the greatest philosophers of morals. He also had a great interest in education, he founded the University of Virginia and it was the very first time a university was founded by the incumbent head of state in the United States.

Martin Luther King, Jr
He was born on 15th January 1929 in Georgia. This great man was born during a period when black people in the United States had no equal rights as whites. At the age of five, he joined Oglethorpe Private Elementary school, which was linked to Atlanta University. Martin Luther’s parents paid $25 to cover yearly expenses in school (Friedman, 2009). His teacher Miss Lemon, taught him to be independent in thinking, she as well taught him that he could rebel against injustice, but still, maintain his dignity. He later attended a high school in Atlanta known as Booker T Washington. He joined Morehouse College at the age of 15. He later became a minister after years in Morehouse College and served the congregation of Ebenezer Baptist church (Friedman, 2009). At age of 19 years, Luther graduated from college.

After graduating from college he joined Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he studied Mahatma Gandhi's teachings of passive resistance that emphasized the peaceful protest of people in demanding their rights. In 1963 together with others spearheaded peaceful matches comprising 200, 000 individuals in Washington D.C. It was here in Washington at Lincoln Memorial that Dr. Luther delivered the ‘I Have a dream’ message. He was jailed several times for resistance allegations, and on 4th April 1968, he was murdered by a gunman in Tennessee, leaving behind his wife Coretta Scott and four children (2 boys and 2 girls).

Audience
The main audiences of Martin Luther King, Jr were the congregation in the church and the blacks who were fighting for equal rights in the United States. Dr. King used a number of methods in gaining the attention of his audience. He emphasized the phrases by reiterating them at the beginning of most of the sentences. He utilized the method of repeating the major theme words as a way of emphasizing the point to his audience. For instance, in his speech I have a dream, the word freedom was mentioned more than twenty times implying that freedom was the way to go for the audience he was addressing (Friedman, 2009).

Purpose
Dr. Luther was a supporter of justice whose influence rose above national boundaries. He was a determined human rights fighter for the African-American people (Friedman, 2009).

Comparison
Both Martin Luther King and Thomas Jefferson advocated for moral equality. They both believed in religion and believed that God existed.