Equality and Justice

During the creation of the United States and separated from the British Empire, our founding fathers set forth to come up with a series of laws that promoted common sense and equality. With this in mind they established three important sets of documents that our country would not be the same without them today. They are The Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and The United States Constitution. However, when our fathers first established these laws, without giving too much thought compromised the equality of African Americans and women in particular. In a matter of time, during the mid 19th century eventually slaves and women ended up fighting for their rights and were able to ratify several amendments in the Constitution. The struggle of African Americans and women during this period were in my opinion supported under these three powerful documents. This is because in each legal document they were able to change the views of their race and gender slowly but adding and changing laws to the United States Constitution. To begin with, after the American revolution ended in 1783, our founding fathers wanted to create a new republic based off of two important aspects. The first being of common sense, and secondly that everyone should be treated equally. Thomas Jefferson was then chosen to draft what would later be called the Declaration of Independence. In this document, it states “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”( Carnes & Garraty 134). With Jefferson's careful wording this statement was not being enforced as it was intended to do. During this time, slavery played a crucial role in the growing of our nation. White men of high social status such as Jefferson used slaves to cook, clean, work while they received no pay, little amounts of food and improper living arrangements. Since