Are all men treated equally?
This America was created on equality, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, wasn’t it? Well at least that is what is stated in the “Declaration of Independence” which was created in 1776. Equality is the state of being equal, whether it is included in rights, status, or opportunity it symbolizes that two or more things are no different than each other. Well why would our founding fathers include such a robust term, that being equality, into the most important document within this America if it would not apply to all that shall reside! All men were not created equal as the declaration stated because some men were forced to be slaves. “They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights,” …show more content…
In his speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” Douglass was very disappointed in how America disregarded the Declaration of Independence. He felt like America should stick to what the founder fathers signed, which was “all men are created equal.” Douglass came to the conclusion that America was not true to its word and could not stick with what they present to the people. “America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon.” In his speech he questions the laws and rights of America and whether or not they are extended to all men. He wants to know since equality and justice is in the declaration are they giving the slaves a part in it. He knows that the he and the slaves are Americans, but the question is, do we get the same rights as everyone else? “Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” Also in Douglass’s speech he mentions how slavery is not divine, meaning that slavery is ungodly. Like most abolitionist Douglass also thought that slavery went against God had established within his people. God did not anticipate that slavery was in his will. “What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken?” The context and tone of the speech that Douglass gave was very stern and solid. One could tell that Frederick Douglass meant business and that he was troubled about the muteness of how America disregarded the Declaration of