The Declaration of independence asserts people’s rights to choose their own government. Under the unfair treatment from the government of Great Britain, the colonies are unified and become independent from Great Britain. People clearly noticed a problem of equality and made this decision of asserting independence. In the Declaration, it says that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that 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.” When I first learned about it, I was taught that it simply translates to “people are born equal”. One day, I saw this picture in one of my cogs classes where the professor used a picture of Abraham Lincoln as a demo. It reminded me of the civil war which happened after the publish of the declaration of independence. Clearly “all men” in the declaration of independence doesn’t include those who worked as slaves. It then also made me think that what about women, and learning about the rights of women during that time also refreshes the definition of “all men” for me. Furthermore, Thomas Jefferson actually drafted the declaration with the issue of slavery but it was removed later. Is it maybe that the people wrote Declaration of independence never take in consideration of people from other races? If it is the case, why were women excluded as well?
While “men” may have been used grammatically to refer to both men and women during that period, it obviously did not include everyone, namely women and slaves. One stark example demonstrating the exclusiveness of who was considered equal is the three-fifths compromise. This 1787 agreement among state delegates counted a slave as 3/5 of a person in order to give the smaller, slavery-dominated southern states more votes to balance out the more populated northern states. What’s even more maddening is the fact that slaves were not given the right to vote at this time. It is unfortunate that slaves were not only not seen as a whole person, but were also not granted suffrage. It wasn’t until 1868 that an amendment had to be passed to recognize African Americans as equal citizens. Although the founding fathers may not have regarded everyone to be their equals, we have the opportunity to address these biases and modify the Constitution accordingly.
Hi Jinghan Cao,
I found it interesting when you discussed the lack of equality within the Constitution, focusing on the lack of rights of women and slaves. The word “persons” was used throughout the Constitution, which seems to be gender neutral. However, it was clear soon after the Constitution was written that women were not included in the statement, “all men are created equal.” A married woman simply did not exist under the eyes of the law; all of her legal existence and property rights were bound by that of her husband’s. Dower rights, which were meant to protect a widow’s income, were being ignored increasingly. The first real constitutional change to affect voting rights was the 14th Amendment, stating that African Americans had the right to gain citizenship in the US. Even with the passing of this Amendment, it was clear that only African American males were allowed to vote. It was only after the 19th Amendment that women were given the right to vote, and that the Constitution fully recognized the citizenship of both genders.