The United States is home to liberty and equality; every man is created equal. This ideal, the subject of the Declaration of Independence, has continued to fuel such movements worldwide.
However, the state of affairs in early American society was rather different. What was meant by “all men are created equal”? Well, even though it was about men, it did not extend to Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, or women. Certain omissions accompanied the formation of this nation, and these paradoxes were to shape the nation’s history.
The paucity of actual black human beings is an interesting irony in the creation of this nation, and the Founding Fathers and Slavery demonstrate how the creators of this new and growing nation perpetuated slavery in ways that built the very structures that would inspire generations to fight for individual liberty.
The Founding Fathers and Slavery
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Manual of the United States of America in 1776 and the Document of Independence, he wrote the words that became the words of the American spirit, claiming that all men are equal.
But then, Jefferson and most of the other Founding Fathers were slaveholders. When the Declaration was written, slavery was well established in the South, where it was a part of the colonies’ economic systems; African people were enslaved.
Although the word freedom and equality was used to some extent, Africans forced into captivity had no legal recognition; they were merchandise and so were denied the liberty they championed.
The U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1787, also endorsed this structure of racial subjugation. It created the right for slavery to continue and further protect property owners’ rights. This compromise referred to those Black Africans as three-fifths of a person to voting rights, and this made certain that slave states had more political influence.
Moreover, the Fugitive Slave Clause meant that fugitive slaves had to be returned to their masters, even if the state was a free one. These provisions entrenched slavery in the United States and ran counter to the ideas of liberty and equality to which the Declaration of Independence paid lip service.
The Exclusion of Indigenous Peoples
At the time when the establishment was celebrating liberty, it was extinguishing Indigenous existence. During the formation of America, most of the territories belonged to the Native American nations.
These people were not included in forming this new nation we are so proud of. The first treaties, like the Treaty of Hopewell of 1785, commercialized Indigenous nations while recognizing these nations assumed subordinate roles to the deemed superior new American government.
When Europeans migrated to the West, the natives were displaced from their territories. This led to the Trail of Tears, the forcible removal of thousands of Native Americans to lands to the west of the Mississippi.
Over time, both the government of the United States and settlers have violated the sovereignty of the natives and went on to truncate the rights of Indigenous people.
The Treatment of Women and the Limited Definition of Equality
Despite the complexities of this great nation, not everyone was provided equal and full rights of an American citizen: enslaved African Americans and Indigenous peoples and also women. When the United States was founded, women had very few rights and were just seen as a possession of their fathers and husbands.
They could not vote, own property, or be active fully in the polity, and this is where the oppressed women came from. In framing the nation’s laws, the Founding Fathers never considered women equal to men.
While women were also considered legally ‘equal,’ they were left out of the encompassing discourse; without agency, it was solely from these same principles that they would later demand their rights. Suffragists, including Anthony and Stanton, adapted liberty and justice for women to frame women’s suffrage, culminating in the 19th Amendment of 1920.
Racial and Gender Exclusion in the Founding Documents
The United States Constitution was a work of compromise; one of the greatest compromises was the status of non-white people. The white, propertied man was granted the franchise and full political rights while the black people, Indigenous people, and women were completely excluded.
The two principal concepts of freedom and equality were used in a discriminative manner, and the rampant suppression of democracy preserved the dictatorial rule of the high-class elite.
What the framers of the Constitution said were liberty and justice, but these were not given to the classes they considered as ‘other’. For the Africans, Indigenous peoples, and women, it would take a long time before the struggle for equality would start.
They have endured and indeed fanned the social injustice prevalent in the United States to date due to the omission of black people right from the time when the American dream was being crafted.
A Chronology of Conflict and Oppression
The denial of the principles of equality at the foundation of the new nation to enslaved Africans, Indigenous peoples, and women did not remain unprotected. Those were Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, who fought to eliminate slave practices and canvassed for African Americans’ freedom, indicating that the amendment only gave certain privileges to a few people.
Notably, executives of numerous tribes – Tecumseh and Sitting Bull, for example – fought for resistance to their territories’ occupation and the erosion of their cultures. From the concerns of suffrage and equality, women’s rights activists pushed and put pressure on the 19th Amendment.
Like the earlier revolutionary movements, these movements were founded on the principles of freedom and democracy – even though these principles were not given to some people. The civil rights movement for African-American rights of women and Indigenous people is still a relevant part of contemporary America, and the dogfight for equality is still ongoing.
The Continuing Struggle for Equality
But let’s not kid ourselves that it was Paradise; after emancipation, Native Americans became U.S. citizens under certain conditions, and women could vote, but only if they were respectively black or white.
Many groups today are discriminated against in one way or another. Race relations, voting rights, and economic marginalization are among the topics that point to the fact that the principles of exclusion are very much enshrined in the formation of the nation.
Therefore, the struggle for participation in America is still continuous, and the exclusion from the nation’s founding principles is a constant reminder of the job to be done.
According to current historical knowledge, the birth of America was paradoxical—this country was born with liberty and equality in its heart, but black people were considered property; understanding these contradictions can enlighten present activity in turning America into an equal society.
Conclusion: Learning from the Past
America was built on certain principles of democracy, but the principles did not cover everyone in the society. Its history initially started with the blatant marginalization of the black people, the Indigenous people, and women, and it only took them years of campaigning before they got the rights that the newly formed nation had initially stripped them of.
Despite some changes in American culture today, they have faced prejudiced treatment and been locked out of mainstream society. To mature, society should embrace all aspects of America’s founding, knowing the historical distortions and the principles of democracy and freedom.