slavery

John Jay a founding father of the United Sates of America stated in 1786 that ‘to contend for our own liberty and to deny that blessing to others involves an inconsistency not to be excused’. The ideology of the American Revolution such as liberty and equality did not extend to slavery, even though slavery was the antithesis of the ideals of the American Revolution it still survived and the emancipation of slaves was a developmental process. The fact that slavery was not abolished during the revolutionary era even though freedom for every man was a key focus reveals the hypocrisy which was rampant at this time. In order to expose the great American contradiction this essay will examine the American Declaration of Independence and one of its key authors Thomas Jefferson.

The American Declaration of Independence is perhaps the most meaningful and important document in the history of America. The main section of this document which is incompatible with the concept of slavery and shows a falsity is during the discussion of human rights and liberties. The Declaration stated ‘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’ this statement iterates that under legal rule all men were to obtain uniform freedom, the fact that the word ‘unalienable’ was used is a major contradiction to slavery, ‘unalienable rights are incapable of being lost or sold’ they are ultimately undeniable, yet these rights were denied to the black slaves. These entitlements were supposedly ubiquitous to every human being, however human beings in this sense were ‘all free, white, property-owning males’ black slaves were not observed as human ...

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...to the human rights and liberties stated in the Declaration of Independence and yet it still survived, this document was almost a precautionary measure in order to control slavery and ensure that the slave trade as a business continued as normal through the various clauses mentioned above. When analysing this incompatibility it was necessary to examine Thomas Jefferson as a founding father as it was the founding fathers prejudices and values that influenced the classes with social standing in America and therefore when antislavery laws were not implemented no one questioned this atrocity as slavery was a norm in this revolutionary era, with reference to Thomas Jefferson it is said in relation to slavery that ‘never did a man achieve more fame for what he did not do’ which epitomises his hypocritical nature and the inconsistency of this so called revolutionary era.