Review Of Founding Brothers By Joseph E. Ellis

458 Words2 Pages

The book Founding Brothers by Joseph E. Ellis is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history. The book is composed of six different episodes of when the founding fathers were alive. It is about how the founding fathers worked to improve the United States and make it a better country.
Ellis's premise is that the founding fathers of the United States of America, who all came from different backgrounds and positions, worked together to make it a better country. Chapter 2, which was all about the dinner that Thomas Jefferson, held. The purpose of the dinner was to create a plan to eliminate national debt. The attendees, who include James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, were to come up with a plan to eliminate national debt. They all came from different …show more content…

The chapter was about how Benjamin Franklin and northern representatives wanted to end slavery. In the text, Ellis described how the Quaker delegation, some northern representatives, and Benjamin Franklin wanted to end the use of slavery in the United States. As evidence, they looked through the Declaration of Independence and a statement that may have shown that slavery should not be approved. For example page 86 states, “... not the Constitution but the Declaration of Independence, which clearly announced that it was 'not possible that one man should have property in person of another" (Ellis 86). This quote demonstrates that there is some part in the document that slavery should not be approved. This episode should rank among the most important episodes of the Early Republic because the people of the United States finally began to grasp the idea that slavery should not be approved, even though it was used a great deal down South. Another reason why this episode should rank among the most important is because it explains why the states did not change their opinions, which all led to the Civil