The Claim and The Rebuttal
The Claim and the Rebuttal
A popular quote from the Declaration of Independence, "all men are created equal" (Declaration of Independence), speaks about equality for "all men" in terms of equality in God's eyes and liberty from tyranny. However, when the Founding Fathers drafted this final version of the Declaration of Independence, they did not consider all men apart of the "all men" that had unalienable Rights. This view is evident in the document because it excludes certain peoples in both 1776 and society today that were treated unequally. Women and slaves were not considered apart of the men mentioned in the "all men are created equal" statement, making it invalid. In Document A, Jefferson condemns the King for taking away the liberty of the slaves. However, he is a hypocrite. Jefferson says, "…purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them…" (Doc A), which clearly shows that he did not consider the slaves to be equal to the men he and his fellow Founding Fathers wrote about. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that the "Rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" are unalienable, meaning they cannot be taken away. How is it then, Africans can be stripped of these absolute Rights and sold to others? Only if these slaves were not apart of "all men" it would be possible for the King to take these Rights away.
In Document B, a similar attitude is taken up about women. The correspondence between the couple, John and Abigail Adams talks about women's rights. Abigail begs John to include privileges for women in the Declaration of Independence. Women will be able to pursue their happiness through the exercise of more privileges (e.g. representation), especially, she notes, if women weren't just treated as "vassals of you Sex"(Doc B), or in a property-like manner by men.
However, John responds by saying, "We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems" (Doc B). He goes onto explain how unnecessary it would be to include women's
A popular quote from the Declaration of Independence, "all men are created equal" (Declaration of Independence), speaks about equality for "all men" in terms of equality in God's eyes and liberty from tyranny. However, when the Founding Fathers drafted this final version of the Declaration of Independence, they did not consider all men apart of the "all men" that had unalienable Rights. This view is evident in the document because it excludes certain peoples in both 1776 and society today that were treated unequally. Women and slaves were not considered apart of the men mentioned in the "all men are created equal" statement, making it invalid. In Document A, Jefferson condemns the King for taking away the liberty of the slaves. However, he is a hypocrite. Jefferson says, "…purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them…" (Doc A), which clearly shows that he did not consider the slaves to be equal to the men he and his fellow Founding Fathers wrote about. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that the "Rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" are unalienable, meaning they cannot be taken away. How is it then, Africans can be stripped of these absolute Rights and sold to others? Only if these slaves were not apart of "all men" it would be possible for the King to take these Rights away.
In Document B, a similar attitude is taken up about women. The correspondence between the couple, John and Abigail Adams talks about women's rights. Abigail begs John to include privileges for women in the Declaration of Independence. Women will be able to pursue their happiness through the exercise of more privileges (e.g. representation), especially, she notes, if women weren't just treated as "vassals of you Sex"(Doc B), or in a property-like manner by men.
However, John responds by saying, "We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems" (Doc B). He goes onto explain how unnecessary it would be to include women's