From The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson
Most people know who Thomas Jefferson was. He of course was the third president of the United States of American and he is also the writer of the famously known Declaration of Independence. Sounds like a very just man or was he? But in reality the Declaration of Independence has some form of hypocritical claim.
‘We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; and that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secured these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it…”
He mentions that every man has the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Slaves didn’t had the right of life since they were own by white man who decided for them. They didn’t have any form freedom either. Especially with the “One drop blood”, it also affected the chances of their descendants of becoming free. The “One Drop Blood Rule” is that is at least halfway along your family line there was a person who was black that automatically made you black. Even if you look completely white but you great grandmother was black you were also black. He even made an equation and pointed out physical characteristics that indicated that you were black.He also mentions that if the people found the government unfair they had the right to go against it. If slaves try to revolt against the white man, it will had cause most of them their deaths. Thomas Jefferson didn’t even have the heart to free his own black children.
Thomas Jefferson said that all men are created equal but he didn’t include men who were slaves or black. Then shouldn’t he have said that all white man is equal?
“When, in the course of human event, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth to separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of that they should declare the causes which impel them to separate.”
Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence during the Revolutionary War. The Revolutionary war was the time when the colonies were fighting to gain their Independence from its mother country, England, thus the line:
“…and to assume among the powers of the earth to separate… “
The colonies separated from England because they were tired of the injustices it imposed on the colonies in general. So they fought to gain their freedom. But again if a black person try to do that it will mean their death. He also mentions God a lot, thus emphasizing that everything that happened was God’s will.