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Eric Foner What Then Is The American Equality

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I believe Eric Foner does a brilliant job depicting Americans’ newfound devotion to equality. He explores the ideals of equality through suffrage, slavery, religious, and patriotic freedom by various author’s excerpts. Equality is threatened and greatened after the American Revolution, but the Revolution within America was the real struggle to maintain our achieved independence. A devotion to equality doesn’t happen overnight and Americans found that out quickly. Americans had to be confused because of all these exceptions to the mission statement of the free world that is the United States. I realize humankind was anything but equal, but the first colonies had a lot of responsibility to set the groundwork for a developing nation. If I were an American at this time, I wouldn’t know whether to believe in suffrage equality …show more content…

John de Crèvecœur who wrote a letter called “What, Then, Is the American?” He recounted his life in the United States through a very enthusiastic, promotional image of America. Crèvecœur had the same celebration mentality similar to other foreigners when the United States’ became an independent nation and therefore, a new society. New opportunities gave some individuals the ability to forge a new nationality from the diverse populations of Europe. He published an account of his life in the United States entitled Letters from an American Farmer where he outlined his life in both Europe and the United States. He described himself as a “new man” which was different than the diverse population of Europe. This idea was later popularized as the idea of the American melting pot. New Americans such as this French-American writer were had a devotion to being equal comparative to their past environments, but people who were racially or religiously discriminated against didn’t share the same devotion. Therefore, they were exceptions to equality and deprived of their liberties unlike successful white men in this

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There have been many movements over time that has led America to where we are today. “The Antebellum reforms was a new, more radical anti-slavery movement that emerged by the early 1830s. Its program for ending slavery stood in stark contrast to the “colonizationist” position earlier advocated by some prominent Americans and embodied in the American Colonization Society (1816–1964)”. (Walters, 1995) This reforms were put into place to better everyone as well as their families.

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During the 18th century, America was colonized by several different countries from Europe; the society was different and so was the people. In the essay, Letters from an American Farmer, which was written by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, builded an argument about the colonial American society. By using rhetorical strategies as well as appealing to the reader's’ emotion, Crevecoeur presented an organized essay to persuade his audience that the America was better than Europe. Crevecoeur started his essay with a series of rhetorical questions in order to compare and contrast between America and Europe.

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Written in 1782 by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, this passage from Letter of an American Farmer was written for the purpose of showing poor, helpless Europeans how much better their life could be in America. America was a place where anyone could come and be accepted as an American despite their cultural, social, or personal background. There weren’t constant fights for superiority or wars over foolish things in America like there was in Europe. America was a giant melting pot of people all coming together to form one great and powerful nation. Crèvecoeur’s usage of powerful metaphors, description, and references make this a powerful essay to persuade poor Europeans that America is the place they should be calling their homeland.

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According to the Declaration of Independence, all men are created equal. But, that is not how society turned out to be. Immigrants, blacks, and women all faces discrimination throughout the 1800's. They were beaten, given poor jobs or sometimes no jobs, and not given the right to vote.

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I believe that Equality wasn’t enough back in 1776 If slaves lived up to this day, everyone would be different. In the year of 1776, there were slaves for white people. They all had to sit where they were assigned.

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In 1782 J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur wrote about the migration of Europeans into America. He was a French aristocrat who settled into the American colonies where he purchased a farm in New York. Crevecoeur is explaining that America is made up of different cultures and is a new place that is equal to all people, and explains so with a passive tone and a powerful use of rhetoric. Crevecoeur’s purpose of the reading is to convince Europeans to move to America and that everyone will be treated equal and given an opportunity at a good life.

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Hector St. John de Crevecour, was a very favorable document because he states stuff that Americans dreamed of living in. The kind of perspective that people wish everyone viewed about themselves and their society. He compares Europe with the new land and how the new world is more of a livable place for people. “He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds... Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.”

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Final exam Earlier in the semester we were introduced to John De Crevecoeur’s letters from an American Farmer and Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. The two books both had strong opinions about what American and what the “New Man” was in American during the 18th century. In the 18th century Benjamin franklin was the man who invented the American dream for many people. His Dream was that through hard work and honesty any man can gain respect in the community; along with deserving prosperity and economic protection. he also believed that American was a place where you could come and have a new start.

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Have Americans lived up to the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence? Equality, rights, liberty, opportunity, and democracy are all of the ideals in the Declaration of Independence but fail to live up to. Tayvon Martin, was a young male African American who was shot by a white male, George Zimmerman. This case sparked nationwide protests and marchings all across the nation and was said to have started it all for the racial debate on equality for all. However, was equality always an issue that nobody talked about?

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Even today in our society we still follow The Declaration of Independence. The quote "All men are created equally" for us mean that, All U.S citizen are the same, we have have the same equal rights and no one is differently when it comes to laws. In the novelette equality

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Equality’s primary meaning in the Declaration of Independence was that no one was born to be subjected to anyone’s authority. In a closer look, behind this idea, lays the fact that people are possessors of rights, equal rights possessors. The implication of this was that they are equal under the law, thereby; people would have equal opportunity to pursuit a way of life that would please them as long as they had social responsibility about the way they do it. It was not self-evident that one was born to be a ruler and the other a follower, they had to support that on their own. Either way you look at, equality has a lot of powerful meanings in this document.

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The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in American history, stating ideals that the people still stand by today. It was written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, and it took him about three weeks. When he presented it to Congress on July 2nd they reviewed the document, made a few alterations, and accepted it two days later on July 4, 1776. The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence states four ideals that Americans still stand by today, but many argue which is the most important. Equality is the most important ideal in the Declaration of Independence because without it all of the other ideals would contradict themselves.

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The Ideals of the Declaration: Which is Most Important? There are four ideals in the Declaration of Independence. The American Government became independent in July 1776. Five men wrote the Declaration of Independence, the main one being Thomas Jefferson.

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Our Founding Fathers had a vision for America, to have “liberty and justice for all.” In other words, to have fairness and freedom for all people in the U.S. It is written in the Declaration of Independence, “… 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 meaning of this quote is simply, every person is equal to the other, provided by “God” or our creator that certain rights the people have cannot be taken away from them such as living their lives freely and happily. I believe we, as Americans, are not meeting this vision; that we are not treating people equally, that we are discriminating them, taking away their basic rights and shaming them for what they believe in and how they live their lives.

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In 1782, French aristocrat J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, wrote an essay titled Letters of an American Farmer as a way of defining Americans. To persuade readers from countries unfamiliar with the American society is his purpose for writing this. Throughout he shows a feeling of admiration and respect towards the American way of life. In the first paragraph Crevecoeur starts with his claim that America is a “great asylum” put together by the “poor of Europe.”

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