preview

The Pros And Cons Of The Declaration Of Independence

Decent Essays

On June of 1776, the Declaration of Independence was born. Drawn up by Thomas Jefferson and based on the works of John Locke, the general purpose of the document was to clarify that governments have conditional, not absolute authority over the people; that human beings possess natural rights that can’t be taken from them and government is created to protect those rights. The phrases “unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and “all men are created equal” were the main theme of the social contract written for the small colonies of what would be the basis of the United States of America to declare independence from Great Britain and its tyrannical king. However, “unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and “all men are created equal” did not apply to African Americans, enslaved or free for the coming years. In the early 1780s, there were established class, racial, and gender orders. Class order would have planters, merchants, and artisans on top, farmers, then servants and slaves as bottom tier. With regard to race, the order of course would be white men as superiors, then blacks and Native Americans as inferiors. As for gender, men always held the higher ranking. This was called the People’s Domain. The People’s Domain, or the common man ideology, was the belief that only white men could be responsible citizens, not African Americans, Native Americans, and women; therefore, white males were the only ones that had voting

Get Access