Whose Ideas Did Jefferson Draw Upon While Drafting The Declaration Of Independence?
At the dawn of the American Revolution, a young member of Virginia's elite planter class penned the sentence that has reverberated throughout history:
"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 amongst these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
For 240 years, the ideas Thomas Jefferson expressed in the Declaration of Independence take ignited imaginations, inspired song and poesy, and aroused political campaigns, social movements, and revolutions around the earth: "permit liberty band" … "God bless America" … "We shall overcome."
But for America's black population, freedom didn't band in 1776. Information technology would take 87 years and a bloody civil war for most African Americans to gain their "unalienable Rights," and another 100 years of courageous protests earlier those rights could be fully exercised. That duality played out across the country, and on Jefferson'due south plantations.
Of the 607 men, women, and children Jefferson owned throughout his life, only 10 were freed on or earlier his death, at which fourth dimension approximately 130 individuals had to be sold, forth with Monticello, to account for his debts. Jefferson's notion of freedom, while visionary for his fourth dimension, did not extend to all people. Withal many enslaved individuals knew of his stirring words and were inspired by the Declaration's announcement of equality.
What should every American know well-nigh the paradox of the Annunciation of Independence? The Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program's "What Every American Should Know" initiative crowd sources ideas from a wide range of Americans into summit 10 lists about what all Americans should know in order to be enlightened, effective, and engaged citizens. The goal of this project is to spark artistic conversation virtually who nosotros are as a nation today — and how nosotros want to tell that story.
Below, Leslie Greene Bowman, president and CEO of theThomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, shares what she together with foundation scholars and staff, thinks every American should know almost the paradox of the Announcement of Independence — how information technology might accept influenced Monticello'southward enslaved families, hereafter generations of African Americans, and liberty-seeking people around the world.
- The Fight for Liberty's Promise
Jefferson'southward words left an enduring imprint of freedom's promise on Monticello'southward enslaved families and their descendants, many of whom pursued equality and racial justice for their people.
2 examples: Peter Fossett was born a slave at Monticello, and settled in Ohio after his manumitted family purchased his freedom. Every bit a free man, Fossett became a church pastor and an Hush-hush Railroad conductor, bravely guiding his brethren to liberty.
William Monroe Trotter — a descendant of Elizabeth Hemings, enslaved at Monticello — founded the Boston Guardian newspaper, helped found the Niagara Movement, precursor to the NAACP, and vociferously challenged President Woodrow Wilson'south segregationist policies.
- Challenging Slavery
In early America, enslaved people struggled for their independence — in small but significant ways — every day.
In addition to the amend-known slave revolts of the 18th and 19th centuries, slaves undertook daily actions to challenge their condition and assert autonomy — including work slowdowns, truancy, and feigned affliction.
- The African Colonization Movement
Jefferson believed that blacks and whites could non co-be in the American nation.
Along with political allies James Madison and James Monroe, Jefferson supported the American Colonization Gild, a campaign advocating for African Americans to migrate to Africa. Many did, including members of Monticello's enslaved community, settling in what became Republic of liberia. In 1847, that fledgling nation incorporated ideas from America's Declaration of Independence into its founding document.
- Jefferson's Civil State of war Prediction
At the same time, Jefferson thought that the paradox of freedom in an age of slavery would ultimately destroy the new nation.
In "Notes on the State of Virginia," Jefferson wrote, "I tremble for my land when I reflect that God is simply: that his justice cannot slumber forever…" He believed that to go along slaves in bondage, with part of America in favor of abolition and part of America in favor of perpetuating slavery, would event in civil war. Jefferson's prediction was correct: in 1861, the contest over slavery sparked a bloody ceremonious war and the creation of two nations — Union and Confederacy — in the identify of one.
- Frederick Douglass' Independence 24-hour interval Speech
In his 1850 Independence Day speech, Frederick Douglass, the bully abolitionist and former slave, invoked the Declaration's principles to excoriate America for the hypocrisy of its founding.
"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more any other days in the twelvemonth, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim." Yet Douglass also plant promise in those principles. "While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions," he said "my spirit is likewise cheered past the obvious tendencies of the age."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" Speech
In his famous "I accept a dream" voice communication, delivered in 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr. also drew upon the Declaration's promise to advance civil rights.
Borrowing from the Sage of Monticello, King shared his vision for America: "I have a dream that 1 day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Dr. King's call was answered on July 2, 1964, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, outlawing racial bigotry in the United States.
- The Black Panther Political party
In 1966, the Blackness Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California, to advocate for the constitutional rights of black Americans, rallying around a 10-Point Program that referred back to Jefferson's words.The plan, a call-to-action for political party members, airtight with a modified version of the Declaration of Independence'south most famous paragraph: "We concur these truths to be cocky-evident, that all men are created equal…it is their correct, information technology is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."
- Women's Rights and the Seneca Falls Convention
Another population who could not fully bask the liberties outlined in 1776 — women — drew upon the words of the Proclamation of Independence to advance their social, ceremonious, and religious rights at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848.
Drafted by suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the Declaration of Sentiments, post-obit the structure of the original Declaration of Independence, was read and debated at the Seneca Falls Convention. The certificate called for equality with men before the law, in educational activity, and employment. It was signed by 68 women and 32 men on July 20, 1848.
- The Global Touch of the Proclamation of Independence
Beyond American borders, the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independenc
east have been echoed in hundreds of like declarations around the earth.More than than half of the countries represented at the Un have a founding document that can be chosen a declaration of independence — from Venezuela, Armenia, and the Ireland, to Yugoslavia, Korea, and fifty-fifty Haiti, the but nation borne out of a slave revolt.
- American Presidents Who Owned Slaves
Twelve American presidents were slaveholders. However, thanks to Jefferson'south copious record-keeping, we know more about plantation life at Monticello, and its enslaved community, than tin be known about the vast majority of early American historical sites.
For more than 50 years, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation has been working to add a critical human dimension to the study of slavery through documentary research, ongoing archaeology, and a groundbreaking oral history project, Getting Word. Since 1993, the Foundation has conducted almost 200 interviews with descendants of Monticello'southward enslaved families. For more information, please visit https://www.monticello.org/getting-word.
Ultimately, Jefferson's most enduring legacy is not what he intended the Annunciation of Independence to mean, but how succeeding generations accept drawn inspiration from its words. History has proven that the prospect of equality and human freedom — life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness —belongs to all people, in all ages.
Leslie Greene Bowman is president and CEO of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, in Charlottesville, VA.
Source: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/every-american-know-paradox-declaration-independence/
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