American Independence Myths

Superior Essays
Many myths are associated with the American War of Independence against Great Britain. Perhaps the greatest of these myths, is the belief that the schism occurred as a result of a simple tax revolt against “big government.” This view of American history contains a flaw; accordingly, the Revolution was not the result of some substantive reason of a greater principle but just a conflict of moneyed personal interests. Between the years of 1763 and 1776, Great Britain and its rebellious colonists were arguing not about bad law, but instead, natural law and the rights of humans. The gentry elite fought against Parliament and the King on the basis that their rights as Caucasian land-owning citizens were being violated to a great extent and all other peoples under the English Crown possessed no political standing and thus were excluded. These very rights that the landed class was arguing for only applied to that same class until later in American history. …show more content…
At the same time that the American colonists were fighting for “unalienable rights,” they were taking away the rights and property of loyalists, barring females from political participation, consolidating the status of slavery, and denying Native Americans basic rights that the tyrant King of Britain awarded them. The example of the Declaration of Independence serves as a strong rallying point for any subordinated classes in America due to the fact that it contains the self-aggrandizing phrase “all men are created equal.” However this phrase has not come to fruition for all Americans, yet it does point to an inconsistency in American law. The text of the Declaration of Independence written at the time of African slave-owning exemplifies controversy; however, what constitutes personhood and property, at this time, was vastly different from the notions of today. The results of triangular trade, Old World influences and mercantilism left the thirteen American colonies with a population of enslaved Africans. The population of black slaves even exceeded the number of white colonists in South Carolina (Lecture 9/23/2014, slide 32). Ironically, the minority ruled the majority and at the time of the American Revolution, British leaders saw this inequality and exploited it. The majority of slaves were centered in the most southern of colonies: Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Infamously, the English aristocrat Lord Dunmore entertained the idea of taking the colonists’ slaves as property for the use of martial law. By declaring martial law in Virginia on November 7th, 1775, the British troops could take slaves as personnel for their own troop. “ I do hereby further declare all indentured Servants, Negroes, or others, free that are able and willing to bear Arms, they joining His Majesty’s Troops as soon as may be” (Dunmore). As a result, a regiment of slaves did join Lord Dunmore as the “Ethiopian Regiment.” However, the backlash from the colonists of Virginia was great and often cost slaves their life as noted in December of 1775, “all negro or other slaves, conspiring to rebel or make insurrection, shall suffer death” (Virginia Declaration). Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation resulted in a loss of property for the colonists, fostered a deeper hatred for the British among the Americans and influenced the Declaration of Independence nearly a year later. Thomas Jefferson along with the other delegates listed the train of abuses in the Declaration of Independence, notably amongst these grievances, was the character and nature of royal officials in the American colonies. Feelings of discontent between the American colonists and Great Britain erupted in battle. The Battles at Lexington and Concord spurred …show more content…
The Americans set a codification of political and constitutional principles at the center of the new government. The Declaration of Independence formed the first part of the founding covenants between government and its people. The fact that the phrase “all men are created equal” is found in the Declaration while its authors own slaves, shows an inconsistency between belief and practice. At the time of political upheaval, fighting and uncompromising views, the Americans codified the abolition of slavery that came decades later. The dream of the American people takes place in that phrase, that “all men are created equal.” America, a nation founded upon negative rights, shows it has been a long lasting constitutional and jurisprudential fight for that statement to be applied to all

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    From the onset, the United States produced great thinkers who have encouraged resistance against illegitimate authority and inspired generations of American leaders to take action. American born philosophers including Jefferson, Thoreau, Melville, and Douglas, in addition to immigrant thinkers among others Thomas Pain, exposed tyranny, despotism, abuse of authority, and paved the way for the American people to fight for their natural rights. At times, the need for resistance came in the form of detachment from the despotic and tyrannical abuses of the mother land. Other times, minorities stood up and fought for their rights to equality, as exampled by the fight against the grotesque institution of slavery –– which subjugated the Negro by law, to women’s fight for the franchise. These thinkers inspired revolt against irrational authority with the theme of resistance, by ringing the bell of freedom against the oppressor.…

    • 1561 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The American Revolution was caused by much more than the simple concept of no taxation without representation; its roots can be found dozens of years prior, in 1763 and the years that followed, as well as back to the early history of colonial North America. Two authors and historians, Colin Calloway, who wrote The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America, and Eric Foner, who authored Give Me Liberty! an American History, offer two comprehensive viewpoints into the origins of the American Revolution and a historical analysis of how the events and conflicts which took place during the time periods influenced the Revolution’s arrival. Colin Calloway’s The Scratch of a Pen begins in the year of 1763, with Calloway defining…

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While trying to form a new national government for the now free colonies, Thomas Jefferson and the Second Continental Congress created a document, The Declaration of Independence “it introduced the radical concept that “all men were created equal” in terms of their God-given right to maintain government of their own choosing”. (Tindall and Shi, 2013) Although, this concept meant different things to different people; the saying "all men are created equal" was not really what happened. What the group was truly trying to state was "all free, white, property-owning males are created equal".…

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    All men are created equal, the immortal declaration was first used in the founding of this nation in 1776 by Thomas Jefferson. If all men are created equal, then why did people own slaves and treated them unequally? This is a question that Harriet Beecher Stowe had to ask in her novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. The novel has created foils between the novel’s more important characters. Like the novel’s central figure Uncle Tom , “the self-sacrificing slave who truly embodies the spirit of Christianity taught to him, but not practiced by his white father "masters” (Levernier)” who is a foil to Simon Legree, “the villainous embodiment of depravity who persists in tormenting and ultimately murdering Tom only because of Tom's goodness.”…

    • 1450 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Marina Gonzalez Mrs. Roose AP English Literature and Composition 1 November 2017 The Influence of Angelina Grimke and Lucy Stone Throughout the world, change is constantly happening. Often, it usually takes the voices of many before things can progress onwards. In 19th century America, the still-new country was battling through many issues of its own.…

    • 1433 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    From the founding of the United States to the present, the idea of freedom has been the staple of America’s appeal. The roots of freedom were planted in the Declaration of Independence, where Thomas Jefferson defined freedom as “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.” The statement held an attractive promise, as it seemingly applied to all Americans. In reality, the promising statement was intended solely for white men, and these restricting ideals were rooted deep into the soil of the rapidly growing America. It is clear that modern American freedom does not equate to that of the Founding, but the degree to which it…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As time fosters distance from the American Revolution, it is expected that the manner in which historians examine this era also has changed and adapted. Even when the facts have remained unaffected, various schools of thought have generated differing opinions of the events surrounding this conflict. This has led to the war not only being studied, but also the individual historian’s directions being dissected as well. Examples of this shifting historiography can be observed within the edited collection of essays and sources within Major Problems in the Era of the American Revolution, 1760-1791, specifically within the chapter entitled “The British Empire and the War for North America”. Utilizing both source documents and essays, the editors of this chapter put together a perspective of the American Revolution…

    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    For this, Harrison got killed, thus murdering the idea of individuality, freedom and real equality. The kind that was first talked about in the Constitution, the kind that governments were built upon: life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The author reveals that in a society of full equality, there is no room for individuality or…

    • 1280 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Despite the progressive ideals embodied in the American Revolution, however, it also suffered from an enormous contradiction--the preservation of slavery in the new United States. This contradiction rendered the American Revolution incomplete--unable to fulfill its stated promise that "all men are created equal."…

    • 194 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Constitution and life thereafter betrayed this guaranteed liberty through the unequal prejudice of Indian’s, African-American’s and Women’s rights. The Constitution betrayed the promise that all men were created equal. Throughout the Revolution, one of the main goals was liberty for all. Liberty means that all citizens, no matter gender, race, or political and social standing would be available to the same rights.…

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution lay out the framework for a representative government by the people, for the people where you were granted the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These documents sought to create a place free from persecution and to establish a place where the government represents the will of the people, for the betterment of the social good. The oppressive institution of slavery seeks to strip such freedoms from the individual to create a legal, tyrannical system. Over time challenges to the system were met with much futility and once promising signs of rights being extended to blacks by way of voting as well as emancipation being left to the slave master, in some states, soon turned…

    • 1837 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When history is discussed, often the American Revolution is thought of as an inspiring movement that resulted in the freedom of the American people. Soldiers and founding fathers are remembered as brave heroes that fought for rights and separation from the oppressive British. The colonies fought for independence, defined as complete freedom and ability to live without being under anyone else’s authority. Ironically, however, white men mostly excluded women and African Americans from this movement, neglecting minority rights like the British had neglected theirs. Overtime, independence from Britain became the goal for white men in the colonies, women and African Americans began to desire their own.…

    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Following the conclusion of The French and Indian War, England was faced with a at least two problems pertaining to her North American colonies that needed to be addressed. The first of which was how to recover from the burden of an enormous amount of debt that had befallen on England secondary to their war efforts. The second was how to control and govern the newly gained territories gained from the French with the treaty of 1763. England’s answer to these two problems for came in the form of numerous social and economic constraints such as taxes, acts, and programs imposed on the colonists in an effort to establish greater control. Ultimately however, England’s efforts to gain greater control were unsuccessful largely due to leading the colonists to believe that England was encroaching on their believed right for fair representation and self-governing, and the final result was uniting the colonists against a common enemy in what eventually would become The American Revolution.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many would argue that America is an exemplary model for democracy, leadership, innovation and even happiness. The 20th century was the century of American. The nation pulled out of the great depression stronger than ever. America stopped Hitler, and communism. America turned to building and changing the world.…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If I were to tell you, the reader that there was something created in the 1700 's that is still amongst us that still lives among each and every one of us, but we all tend to overlook it so easily, would you believe me? In 1776, the Declaration of independence gave this great nation a foundation for centuries and allows an individual to feel that the United States is a place where anyone could be who he or she would like to be with no ruling governmental restrictions. In my term paper I will focus on how we still live by the idea that “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.”…

    • 1004 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays