All Men Were Created Equal Dbq Analysis

America is the land of the free and home of the brave, but has it always been? If someone were to reference old documents like The Declaration of Independence or even The Constitution they would think so, but American history itself says otherwise. During the mid 1770’s slavery was an almost unquestioned normality and women had no rights, however when The Declaration of Independence was written, the statement, “all men are created equal” appeared while Thomas Jefferson stated the natural rights of every human. This statement is clearly not true in the eyes of the men who wrote and edited this document, hence proving that the statement “all men were created equal” is hypocritical. In accordance to primary sources gained from this period of intolerance and recreations of it, it is clear that not only were the women not treated as equal, but the African men and women treated as property were also stripped of the three main rights and liberties the Declaration argues for.

Abigail Adams letter to John Adams asking him to remember the ladies when the new country is made (Source B), and his crude letter back explaining her ridiculousness (Source E). A letter most likely written by a free slave so desperate for the freedom of the African children that he learned to write and sends a petition to the congress (Source C). And finally, in the recreation of the the mid 1770’s events, the miniseries John Adams (Source D). Therefore, The statement, “All men were created equal” is a hypocritical statement because the African people and women were treated as property to be owned instead of as equal people as the statement