Declaration of Independence 1776

Agenda

• What is the Declaration of Independence• Who wrote it and what were their motives• What is slavery• How did the Declaration effect slavery• What Influence if any did the Civil war have on

the freeing of Slaves• What connection did the Civil Rights Movement

have with the declaration of Independence

What was it and Why was it written?

• Document included the principles for which they stood, complaints against the King and therefore the reasons for independence.

• Based on Locke’s and Rousseau’s idea of social contract “when the government breaks the trust of its people, they reserves the right to remove the government and replace it with another.”

• There had been a whole range of incidents which the colonists coincided infringements on their basic rights and civil liberty, therefore they revolted and sought independence.

What did the document state• The document stated that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that

all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” (American Declaration of independence, written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776)

• Where these values upheld in the New American society?• What were the framers referring to when they said “All men are created

equal”?• What influence did the document have on slavery?

The Players

• Slavery, however, continues unaffected. Thomas Jefferson, who drafted the declaration, has nearly 200 himself. He believes that blacks are still God's creatures, but are different from whites in that they are unable to differentiate between love and lust and feel grief only fleetingly. George -Washington, the first president, has 316 slaves on his plantation in Virginia.

Civil War• With Lincoln, the civil rights movement became a struggle

of abolitionists and Blacks to overcome the doctrine enshrined by the Supreme Court that Blacks were not included, as people or as citizens, in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of 1787. Lincoln was aware that of 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 16 had held "productive" slaves, and 9 more had held slaves around the house.

• The defeat of the confederacy and the consequent amendments to the United States constitution guaranteed equal rights to all Americans regardless of race.

• Enduring power of racism remained (ignorance)• 1772 slavery abolished in GB

How was this document utilized in the civil rights movement

• The declaration outlined the views of the framers but did little for the legal environment of the US.

• Through amendments to the constitution the ideals from the declaration were integrated into society in a legal sense.

• Amendment IX and X:. This concept of individual government (or, as in the declaration, liberty) is essential to the US system is introduced.

• Amendment XV: 1870 The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This is the legal basis of equality, defined as an American ideal in the "all men are created equal" ideal of the Declaration.

How was it utilized cont

• (1881 Tennessee votes to segregate black and whites on trains. Over the next two decades, other southern states follow suit .Soon, every state in the former Confederacy has legalized segregation, enshrining white supremacy in political and public life. )

• Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech

Extract from Martin Luther Kings Speech 28th August 1968

• "In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all-yes black men as well as white men- would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory vote, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “Insufficient funds”