Interpreting Equality: Thomas Jefferson's Contradictions

All “men” are created equal
The meaning of equality has been expanded since the founding of America when Thomas Jefferson stated in the Declaration of Independence that “…all men are created equal…” However, when he used the word “men” he was specifically referring to property-owning males. Ironically, throughout his life, Jefferson owned hundreds of African American slaves yet in multiple of his writings on American injustices during the Revolution he vilified the fact that the British were sponsoring slave trade to the colonies. Jefferson himself valued slaves and but did not necessarily wanted them to have the equality of a free man. Certain objects constructed Thomas Jefferson’s idea of “men” during the enlightenment time period such as

Paul Reveres engraving called “The Boston Massacre” and Abigail Adams letter to her husband John Adams. Paul Reveres “Boston Massacre” was a form of propaganda to portray the protesters innocence during their opposition of the British taxes. Five civilians were killed including an African American merchant sailor named Crispus Attucks, who had escaped from slavery more than twenty years earlier, however Attucks was not depicted in this engraving. This removal of an African American slave was a representation of slave inequality and could very well explain why Thomas Jefferson and many other landowning white men disregarded the equality of slaves. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the self-evident truth that all men are created equal he did not only exclude slaves from this idea but also women. In Abigail Adams’ letter to her husband called Remember the Ladies, she says,
“I long to hear that you have declared an independency-and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors.”
Abigail refers to the declaration of independence and basically tells her husband to remember to incorporate women in the new “Code of Laws” or in the Declaration of Independence. This letter was known to be the first private step in the fight for equal rights for women. Because the letter was written the same year as the declaration of independence, it can be presumed that most people didn’t give women equality much notice before that year. Also, Abigail thinks women did not acquire enough recognition because she states: “…be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors”, which explains how most people did not perceive a sense of women’s rights. Thomas Jefferson did not include women in his idea that all men are created equal during the enlightenment period because of the recognition and importance that women did not possess. Jefferson would define the word men in his first self-evident truth as a white property-owning male. This is an accurate assumption because during the Enlightenment in America, African American slaves did not have representation or equality as demonstrated in Paul Revere’s engraving called “The Boston Massacre” and neither did women, according to Abigail Adams in her “Remember the Ladies” letter to her husband.