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