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Was the Declaration of independence a deceptive document for the times. Consider this. The year is 1776 and their is no internet ,no phone, nothing modern. The local meeting places were churches, saloons and schools.
Now with the United Sates being newly minted they need deception to lure folks in. What better than to tell everyone that in America you are free and created equal. Now the founding fathers were deists, not Christian.
If the founding fathers really meant that all men were created equal why did they have slaves? Slavery actually grew in the next 90 years before the civil war. If the words of all men were created equal really meant something they would have implemented it right away, at their own estates. They were all filthy rich. They would all grow even richer.
If the time is 1778 and you are in a saloon drinking and you hear about how great America is and freedom you will have from the ship's captain who is selling passage. Would you go? Then after a long voyage you wind up in the ghetto's of New York.
I say strong evidence exists that the Declaration of Independence was mere propaganda. They needed folks to do the work and needed to give them hope. Truth is some made it, most did not. If all men were created equal really meant anything it would have been implemented right away. We would have had no civil war or any of this mess. Evidence suggests the founding fathers were hypocritical liars. You agree or disagree.
I don't think there is any Great Debate about the fact that the "all men are created equal" phrase wasn't exactly accurate, LMAO, so we'll leave that one alone.
The Declaration of Independence wasn't designed to lure people in. It was for the people who were already in the colonies to bring them on board to revolt against the government that was oppressing them.
In 1778, the City of New York was occupied by the British, so I am not sure where you are going with the story of someone being lured by a ship captain and ending up in the "ghettoes" you imagine existed then.
A more interesting and actual story of someone being brought on board came up in the ancestry show "Who Do You Think You Are?" that featured Rob Lowe. His ancestor was a Hessian soldier, the youngest son of a family who therefore would receive little inheritance so hired himself out to the British as a mercenary. He was captured at the Battle of Trenton. He and the other POWs were held in a nearby church in Pennsylvania.
The Continental Army did not have the money to feed and house POWs for long, so what they did was hand out a flyer saying in effect, "Look, this is what we are trying to do--kick out an abusive King and run a country with a new form of government. Join us." Rob Lowe's ancestor did that and became a supplier of goods for the Army.
That's a more realistic story at the time of the Declaration and subsequent eight-year war of how outsiders might have been entreated to stay in the new country. It is unlikely that there was much thought of trying to lure others to the new country at that stage in the game. The DOI was targeted to the people who were already living in the Colonies.
I think you are oversimplifying the Founders' intent based on 21st-century thinking.
There's "strong evidence" that our educational system is in deep trouble.
The founding fathers were not in agreement over the issue of slavery, before or after the Declaration of Independence or the adoption of the Constitution.
The D of I was not The Law of the Land. That came later, with the articles of confederation, that did not address slavery. The main problem was NOT propaganda - but a contradiction in the early philosophy. It was not possible to maintain the "all men are equal" thing and ALSO the "states' rights" thing. This is because slaves were property. The Federal philosophy - committed to a weak federal gov't. - simply did not have a juice to tell the states how to manage their property - despite the stated philosophy that perhaps there's a problem there.
This resulted in compromises, conflicts, and a war - regarding states' rights, I mean.
There is a great LACK of understanding now-a-days that our states are still states (except for those that aren't - I'm looking at you, PA) - and they have ALL the power - still. Our USA-centric mindset here makes us think of a "state" as some property with a line around it - but the rest of world recognizes the word "state" historically to mean, pretty much, a nation. That's why the USA is exactly that - a group of States (little mini-nations) that decided, for the sake of common defense and a few other things, that maybe a "central command" on a few of these issues was better for all. And it was (and is). But slaves were property, states' rights were (are) paramount, and men (slaves) paid the price of that compromise.
It was not propaganda.
I am not a history major, nor a lawyer, and I may have a subtle error in there somewhere - but this is what I remember from, hm, 7th grade Civics class? If you don't remember that - look in the mirror, not the "conspiracy" page.
There's "strong evidence" that our educational system is in deep trouble.
The founding fathers were not in agreement over the issue of slavery, before or after the Declaration of Independence or the adoption of the Constitution.
The D of I was not The Law of the Land. That came later, with the articles of confederation, that did not address slavery.
The Declaration of Independence was nothing but a list of grievances. We as Americans celebrate Independence Day as July 4, 1776, the date of its signing, but the war for independence was still ongoing at the time, and would be until 1783. America was not a "free" nation in 1776, and had the rebels lost to the British, they would have been prosecuted (and executed) as traitors.
The Declaration of Independence was nothing but a list of grievances. We as Americans celebrate Independence Day as July 4, 1776, the date of its signing, but the war for independence was still ongoing at the time, and would be until 1783. America was not a "free" nation in 1776, and had the rebels lost to the British, they would have been prosecuted (and executed) as traitors.
Countries tend to look for symbolic events when choosing the date they’ll celebrate Independence Day. In Australia, the national holiday is on January 26, though that has nothing to do with when the country actually gained independence.
”All men are created equal” doesn't mean individual men. It meant that the colonists as a people were equal to those Englishmen on the other side of the Atlantic who had representation in Parliament.
Jefferson almost took verbatim portions of George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights in which Mason wrote:
Section 1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
What Mason meant is clear from a letter to the Committee of Merchants in London on June 6, 1766 in which he wrote:
"...We claim Nothing but the Liberty & Privileges of Englishmen, in the same Degree, as if we had still continued among our Brethren in Great Britain: these Rights have not been forfeited by any Act of ours, we can not be deprived of them, without our Consent, but by Violence & Injustice; We have received them from our Ancestors, and, with God's Leave, we will transmit them, unimpaired to our Posterity.. "
The other thing to consider is that even as the draft from the Committee of Five came out with a clause about the slave trade, the Committee of the Whole removed it to ensure slaveowners would go along. Many slaveowners, Jefferson included, considered slaves inferior as uncomfortable as that might make us feel today. To get an idea of Jefferson's views read his Notes on the State of Virginia. Compare his views on slaves to Washington's. No where in Washington's diaries, letters or anywhere (the total is over 100,000 ; the diaries alone are six volumes) - will there be a reference to African Americans being inferior. https://founders.archives.gov/about/Washington
A lot of political documents are carefully crafted by the economic and political elites to falsely convey some lofty ideals and principles to the masses. In the end human nature takes hold and degenerate into the haves and have nots.
July 4th, 1776 is not date of the independence. It is the date of the colonists declared their independence from Great British. The next few years were wars. Great British only recognized the United States in 1783 Treaty of Paris.
Stop applying today's standard to a standard many generations ago. Slavery is NOT unique to the US. It was the acceptable norm in the 18th century and as well as most of the human history. The slaves were bought and sold like goods. In other words, they were property to their owners. The owners paid their hard earned money for the slaves.
More importantly, the newly Federal Government was weak. The power belonged to the States. The shift to a powerful central government only after the Civil War has concluded.
Just a few other thoughts. First, at least for the VA planters, they could not have just freed their slaves. In Washington's case for example, he tried. The problem for him was that about half were dower slaves, owned by the estate of Martha Washington that she could not free since women couldn't own property, they were for her use to go to the next male heir in the Custis line after her death. Thus, to free his slaves, and not her's, he would have destroyed families, something he refused to do. He was wealthy, but always cash strapped and did not have the money even if he sold his western lands to buy them from the estate. And then, where would they go? His five farms were exhausted. Send them to the frontier to starve in the wilderness?
Some did free their slaves, but it was a long process. Robert Carter freed his 500+ slaves but it took him over 30 years under VA law at the time - see link. Special consideration had to be given for the care of children, the disabled and the elderly.
The approach sometimes taken was that used by (Lt.) Governor Fauquier who was Jefferson's mentor. His will specified his slaves were not to be sold to any owner of whom they did not approve.
Remember that until the Continental Congresses met, most Virginians had never even left VA. Certainly not Jefferson. Washington first exposure to free Blacks was transformative, but most did not have that. Slavery in Scotland, or at least a form of it, was still the law.
Was the Declaration of independence a deceptive document for the times. Consider this. The year is 1776 and their is no internet ,no phone, nothing modern. The local meeting places were churches, saloons and schools.
Now with the United Sates being newly minted they need deception to lure folks in. What better than to tell everyone that in America you are free and created equal. Now the founding fathers were deists, not Christian.
If the founding fathers really meant that all men were created equal why did they have slaves? Slavery actually grew in the next 90 years before the civil war. If the words of all men were created equal really meant something they would have implemented it right away, at their own estates. They were all filthy rich. They would all grow even richer.
If the time is 1778 and you are in a saloon drinking and you hear about how great America is and freedom you will have from the ship's captain who is selling passage. Would you go? Then after a long voyage you wind up in the ghetto's of New York.
I say strong evidence exists that the Declaration of Independence was mere propaganda. They needed folks to do the work and needed to give them hope. Truth is some made it, most did not. If all men were created equal really meant anything it would have been implemented right away. We would have had no civil war or any of this mess. Evidence suggests the founding fathers were hypocritical liars. You agree or disagree.
We have the same hypocrisy today with the multitude of court rulings that aliens and minors do not have equal rights with full citizens. Every generation thinks all prior equal rights movements were self evident but the next such movement is never so. Every generation thinks its designation of who should be a second class citizen is justified but the previous ones were not. Perhaps all of them are wrong.
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