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| from http://www.founding.com/the_declaration_of_i/ |
The Declaration of Independence "drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson's most enduring monument.
In this document Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people. The political philosophy of the Declaration of Independence was not new; its ideals of individual liberty had already been expressed by John Locke and the Continental philosophers.
What Jefferson did was to summarize this philosophy in "self-evident truths" and set forth a list of grievances against the King in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country."
The rough draft of The Declaration of Independence can be found here.
How does your rereading or greater understanding of The Declaration of Independence (inclusive of the draft form) affirm, change or challenge your understanding of American culture, African American culture and/or the institution of chattel slavery/commodified bodies in the Americas?
Also consider and incorporate any information from your reading of Chapters 3 and 4 of The African American Odyssey.
After reading the declaration of independence, it affirmed my belief that majority of the writers of this important document did not see black people as men or women who had the same God given rights that congress was demanding. This document showcased the hypocrisy of the founding fathers, who even though owned slaves, did not believe slaves had any rights to everything that they mentioned. They only thought that white people demanded liberty from opression.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment, Joshua. I hope we get to debate about this in class and discuss how situating the discussion of race within the context of 'commodified bodies' affirms, challenges or changes what you have stated above.
DeleteThe declaration of Independence was created to show that each and every man was given the same rights and was "created equal". This idea is something of great importance, but sadly it was not the case in this great nation. Slaves still existed during this time. So how would this make any sense at all? The problem was that slaves were not seen as people. So I guess this is how they got around the whole "equal" thing. I believe that when everyone is treated and given equal opportunity to succeed, this is when a society will flourish.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Maybe researching the 3/5ths rule will help us to better understand how 'equality' was quantified in the context of democracy. Can you look this up for me?
DeleteAs I review this document, I find it a bit hypocritical. It was written to express the injustices the people of the colonies felt that they were experiencing, but at the same time they have slaves who are living in worse conditions right on their own soil. They claim that America will be a place where people will have undeniable rights bestowed upon them by God (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness), but these are the same exact rights that they are depriving the slaves from. They claimed that "all men" would be created equal, but a whole group of people were left out of this. It's clear that when this document was written, slaves were not looked upon as human beings, they were considered nothing more than property.
ReplyDeleteOk. Do you think this idea differs from the draft and the final Declaration of Independence? If so, how. If not, please tell me how they are the same.
DeleteI think that it remain the same, because from the beginning, slaves were not viewed as people and this idea remains consistent through the draft to the final copy.
DeleteI think often what is taught in school about the Declaration of Independence is that serves as the foundation of our country, that it was created to act as a governing body and thus must inherently be all that is good and fair. While the document has definitely grounded the principles of America, those principles are actually inherently hypocritical. It states ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but is not applied to ALL humans living within the geographical bounds of the country. It is ironic that Thomas Jefferson criticizes the British government in this document about its tyrannical nature, but this document in many ways exudes that same tyrannical nuance. So in fact, our country was built on a theory of inequity, which makes it easier to understand the true and raw history of this nation as it pertains to African Americans.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the rough draft of The Declaration of Independence, one could tell that the "Founding Fathers" chose to stay away from the topic of slavery. In the beginning of the document they originally, mentioned the idea of slaves as wrongful and against the given rights of men. But, they did not want to seem like hypocrisy, because they use slaves. So they ended up taking that part about slaves out the Declaration of Independence.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the Declaration of Independence, it seems to be a lot of deceiving things apart of it. Throughout the whole document it talks about freedom of the people and the unfair things that the people in America faced from the Government of Britain, and that this new land will be a place where everyone is free and everyone will have rights and be equal. But at the the same time is a huge hypocrisy because there were slaves in the country who were not seen as equals to the whites and they were treated as property not even as human beings. There is talk of how they feel so oppressed as a people even though they are oppressing another people.
ReplyDeleteMy reading of the draft of The declaration of Independence affirms my belief that the founding fathers of this country did not see slaves as people. They wrote this document to illustrate that every man in the united states has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, however slavery was still happening in the United States. Slaves did not have the right to life, liberty in freedom. This document, to me, is very hypocritical. In school we are taught that The Declaration was such a great thing for our country, but in reality it was only a great thing for white americans in our country.
ReplyDeleteIn the declaration of independence they talk about all the harsh and cruel things the King did to them. And how he robbed them of their freedom, but it's very contradicting because the same rights that they say the King is depriving them of, they are depriving from the African Americans. They also talk about how all men are created equal, and every one has the right, of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But they didn't give those rights to the African Americans.
ReplyDeleteThe declaration of Independence is seen a lot of times as the holy grail of U.S documents. The birth certificate of the greatest nation of the world. Which stated that all men were equal and had inherent, inalienable rights. A document that not only wasn't true by the writers then but isn't true in America now. Because even now Men and women exist in the for profit prison population. Where the more prisoners the prison achieves the more money the prison makes. The for profit prisons lobbied our government to pass harsher laws to put prisoners in the prisons more frequently and for a longer amount of time.
ReplyDeleteAmerica wanted independence from Britain because they felt they were being mistreated. The famous line "all men are created equal", is assumed that America believed in equality of all it's people; and wanted a new start where people were treated with respect. That isn't exactly the case. Between the rough draft and the final draft there is a huge change. The document goes from "all men are created equal and independent; that from that equal creation they derive in rights" to " all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with equal rights, some of which are rights" to "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with rights."
ReplyDeleteThis part of the Declaration of Independence is rewritten three times, due to the fact of the presence of slavery. Jefferson manipulated his words; in order to make Slavery legal. All men went from having rights (being born with rights) and sharing the same creation to having a creator. Someone who was above them; meaning the whites above the slaves. Then they went from having equal rights to having just rights. Basically; just having whatever is given to them. The manipulation of words helps aid the government in their continuation of slavery.
After looking at this document, i noticed how the writers kept rewriting the declaration so that it wouldn't apply to Africans. They said all men were created equal but slaves weren't considered equal. Also i found it interesting that the writers were asking for their freedom, but they weren't exercising freedom in their own country. They made their enslavement to Great Britain so bad, but they were enslaving people themselves.
ReplyDeleteReading the document showed me that these people in the colonies or the founding fathers to me were just a walking contradiction. To talk about being a slave and then enslaving another group of people is wrong. I never really looked at it that way until I gain a better understanding of what was going on with slaves at the time.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the Declaration of Independence it is easy to confirm that Thomas Jefferson and the editors didn't exactly see the slaves as being humans. In the declaration they talk about freedom and oppression from Great Britain but they also talk about man being allowed to "pursue happiness".
ReplyDeleteThis clearly means that they didn't see slaves as humans because they didn't have the option to pursue any form of happiness.
The document was created with the idea that all men meaning (white) were entitled to the new concept of "Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness." This document was made without regarding slaves/African American's as people. I personally believe that this document before and after the modifications made to it was created purposely to exclude the slaves so that slavery in America would be acceptable and to insure that the slaves would remain property and not looked at as man to be given their rights to Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness.
ReplyDeleteReading the Declaration of Independence only confirmed what I understand the attitude toward slaves at the time. The stated that people were allowed to abolish the government if the institution was infringing on any right endowed by the Declaration of Independence. Slavery infringed on slaves right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, slaves were not considered human. Therefore, the laws of slavery were technically infringing on any rights.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this document it only confirmed my suspicion that the Declaration of Independence was never initially including African Americans. The reason being is because I those times they weren't African Americans, or men, or even humans for that point. It wasn't that they didn't understand slavery and how horrible and breaking it was to a people, because they identified themselves as being enslaved and their communities burned and people broken by the British. So it's not that they did get understand it is just that com idiocies bodies were just that, they were property, items. The born rights that men had and how they were created equal only applied to humans.
ReplyDeleteAfter rereading the declaration of independence the main part that stuck out the most to me is the fact the declaration states all men men are created equal and once this is challenged any law can be modified and abolished to meet the expectations of the current culture. The fact that the law was written while slavery was at its peak shows that at the time the rulers of the country viewed slaves as property and not as people.
ReplyDeleteAfter rereading the Declaration of independence, my understanding was changed dramatically. I noticed this statement made in the text, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” but they didn’t view slaves as humans let alone men. They were housing slaves in the worst living conditions possible and also punishing them inhumanely. They claimed to be slaves to the British and stated they were granted the rights listed in the quote presented earlier. Whereas the slaves they owned were controlled and being worked practically to death.
ReplyDeleteThe comparisons of both the rough draft and final draft of the constitution is eyeopening. Some of the language used in this document just shows the thought process of the leaders at the time stating that all men are equal; these are self-proclaimed truths seeing as though slaves and commodified bodies weren't even considered human beings let alone men and women. Like the change from "sacred & undeniable" to "self-evident" shows that they know that it is not right and has nothing to do with God will and plan but with man’s desires. Self-evident means something that should not be or have to be questioned and/ or obvious. There are also words to suggest the desire for separation from Great Britain for example, "...the History of his the present majesty is a history of..." to "... the History of the present king of Great Britain is a history of..." showing sovereignty from Great Britain and the king's rule and power over them.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the declaration of independence, it affirmed my belief that majority of the writers of this important document did not see black people as men or women who had the same God given rights that congress was demanding. This document showcased the hypocrisy of the founding fathers, who even though owned slaves, did not believe slaves had any rights to everything that they mentioned. They only thought that white people demanded liberty from opression.
ReplyDeleteOften times the founding fathers are looked at as hypocritical for using phrases such as "All men" but then condoning slavery. However I don't completely agree with that label because to them white men were the only men in the united states. Slaves were looked at as property so in their minds the idea of them being included in the conversation of men was outrageous. This is completely insane and absolutely wrong but when you tell a lie enough times even you begin to believe it eventually and I believe that is what the founders did to convince themselves that slaves were property. So I feel that instead of calling the founders hypocrits I feel a better description of them is just awful human beings.
ReplyDeleteIt actually changed my understanding of American Culture. I truly understand now that Declaration of Independence really didn't do much for slaves and their families. It was a system that still wouldn't give us the freedom or equality that we needed. They truly did hide all of the bad images of America and still attended to they're own agenda. The leaders in my book, they were just people who made a system so they could go through life easier. They really didn't deal with the social justice of America and what was unethical about it. Just sad
ReplyDeleteReading the declaration of Independence further solidified my belief that this country was built on the idea that melanin negates humanity. The authors constantly revised the document to assure that Africans were not included. They couldn't have been more hypocritical than to reference God over and over, but deny his children equal rights. The document was written during a time of slavery, life long, agonizing, fully oppressive, chattel slavery-but they love Jesus. The entire document is a contradiction, however it does sere to shed light on why the country is the way it is today.
ReplyDelete