Slavery

1 Pages 293 Words

Jefferson and Slavery
The task of drafting the Declaration of Independence fell to Jefferson, who was known for his powerful writing style. Jefferson intended the document "to be an expression of the American mind," but the eloquence of the phrasing was his own. Thomas Jefferson claimed that he used "neither book nor pamphlet" when writing the declaration, but the document reflected a broad understanding of 18th-century political thought. Over time, the Declaration of Independence has profoundly affected American history. Phrases from the document such as "all men are created equal" quickly took on a life of their own or were applied to groups that the authors never anticipated, the ideal conflict being slavery. By Thomas Jefferson owning slaves, it made the Declaration of Independence false and hypocritical.
On some level Thomas Jefferson is promoting the very thing he aims to destroy. He wants to rebel against King George the third for taking his very human rights while dehumanizing an entire race in his own household. Had it not been the common practice to have slaves in those days it would probably have destroyed his credibility and also ruined the strength of the document itself. This document, with a few words substituted, could very well be used to rally the black slaves against their owners. Blacks quickly used this language to challenge slavery in the United States. The ideal of equality led Northern states to free slaves within their borders in the 1780s, 1790s and early 1800s. Black and white abolitionists used the ideal that all men were created equal to attack slavery in the South before the Civil War. And civil rights supporters rallied behind Jefferson’s words in their fight against racism in the 1950s and 1960s....