Understanding Independence: The Declaration of Independence and its legacy

Understanding Independence:

The Declaration of Independence and its legacy

The Declaration of Independence

“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

What was “independence”?

Who was “independent”?Who was “equal”?

What was “independence”?

Goals for today:• Show how “independence” and

“equality” changed in meaning during last 200 years

What was “independence”?

Goals for today:• Show how different groups of

Americans made claims to “independence” and “equality” using the Declaration of Independence

What was “independence”?

Groups Examined:1) Ordinary white men2) Slaves/African Americans3) Women

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

Revolutionary-era Americans had very specific ideas of who was “independent” and “equal” when it came to citizenship and political rights

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

Ideas came from European debates about ideology of “republicanism”

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

What was republicanism?

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

Republicanism was a set of ideas about what it took to create a healthy republic

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

Republicanism was a set of ideas about what it took to create a healthy republicBased on lessons of failed past republics (Greek, Roman)

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

Why had past republics failed?

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

Why had past republics failed?Concentrations of wealth and political power

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

Healthy republic required citizens to be politically equal and independent

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

Healthy republic required citizens to be politically equal and independentBUT: to be politically “independent” one had to be economically “independent”

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

What did it mean to be economically independent?

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

What did it mean to be economically independent?Own property and especially LAND

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

Who was NOT economically independent (“dependent”)?

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

Who was NOT economically independent (“dependent”)?• Children, women, slaves, men

without land and property

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

• Dependents considered a threat to the republic: they would vote as parents, owners, husbands, employers, etc. directed

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

• Would lead to corruption: wealthy men dominating politics through control of dependents

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

In colonial period, voting rights linked to land ownership (property)

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

In colonial period, voting rights linked to land ownership (property)• 2/3 to 3/4 of white families owned

land

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

In colonial period, voting rights linked to land ownership (property)• 2/3 to 3/4 of white families owned

land• 50-75% of adult white males could

vote

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

New Revolutionary governments continued linking citizenship and voting rights to economic independence

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

Wealth standard for voters, even higher standard for political leaders

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

• Property requirements for office holding

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

• Property requirements for office holding

• In many new states, only wealthiest 10 percent could hold office

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

• Property requirements for voting

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

• Property requirements for voting• Lower requirements than colonial

period, so expanded voting

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

• Property requirements for voting• Lower requirements than colonial

period, so expanded voting• PA dropped property requirements

altogether

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

• Most white men could vote

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

• Most white men could vote• Black male property owners could

vote in most northern states

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

• Most white men could vote• Black male property owners could

vote in most northern states• Single women/ widows with

enough property could vote in NJ

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

The disenfranchised:• Propertyless white men

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

The disenfranchised:• Propertyless white men• All slaves

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

The disenfranchised:• Propertyless white men• All slaves• Most Free Blacks

“Independence” for Revolutionary Generation

The disenfranchised:• Propertyless white men• All slaves• Most Free Blacks• Nearly all women

C19: White Man’s Democracy

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• In Jacksonian period, “independence” changed:

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• Now to be independent, one had to be a white man

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• White men used Declaration of Independence as a way to claim equality among white men regardless of wealth

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• New push was related, in part, to the growing wealth inequality of the 19th century in countryside and cities with industrialization and the rise of capitalism

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• In many places, a majority of white men were landless (even on the frontier)

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• Led to universal white manhood suffrage

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• Led to universal white manhood suffrage

• Elimination of property requirements to vote in most states

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• At the same time, state constitutions were rewritten to bar voting by everyone who was not a white man

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• New Jersey eliminated voting for propertied single women and widows

• Other states rewrote constitutions to specify only men could vote (even though women never had voted)

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• Constitutions banned Black voters

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• By 1840, 93 percent of free northern black adult males could not vote

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• By 1858, free blacks were eligible to vote in just four northern states: NH, ME, MA, and VT (small black populations)

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• At the same time, states and cities passed segregation and vagrancy laws to make free Blacks less independent

• New western states tried to ban Black in-migration

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• Declaration was also used by White farmers and workers to express their grievances over growing inequality

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• Raised idea of economic independence and economic equality as important to saving the democratic republic

C19: White Man’s Democracy

• Used against land speculators, landlords, bankers, manufacturers/factory owners, railroad companies

African Americans and the Declaration

African Americans and the Declaration

The Declaration was used by African Americans as a weapon against slavery and to gain rights for free Blacks

African Americans and the Declaration

Before Emancipation Proclamation, most African Americans refused to celebrate July 4th: celebrated July 5th as a protest against slavery

African Americans and the Declaration

Peter Osbourne, July 5, 1832: “Fellow Citizens—On account of the misfortune of our color, our fourth of July comes on the fifth; but I hope and trust that when the Declaration of Independence is fully executed which declares that all men, without respect to person, were born free and equal, we may then have our fourth of July on the fourth.”

African Americans and the Declaration

Declaration frequently invoked by abolitionists pushing for an end to slavery.

African Americans and the Declaration

Frederick Douglass, 1846: “I do speak against an American institution—that institution is American slavery. But I love the Declaration of Independence, I believe it contains a true doctrine—"that all men are born equal." It is, however, because they do not carry out this principle that I am here to speak.”

African Americans and the Declaration

Declaration also used to demonstrate hypocrisy of “all men are created equal” for segregation, voting rights, employment discrimination, etc

African Americans and the Declaration

Black Americans used it frequently in the 19th-20th century

African Americans and the Declaration

One of the ways of trying to rally white support during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s

African Americans and the DeclarationMLK, “I have a dream” speech: “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 men - 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 note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.”

Women and the Declaration

Women tied the Declaration of Independence to push for “independence” and “equality”

Women and the Declaration

First clear attempt was Seneca Falls Convention of 1848

Women and the Declaration

“Declaration of Sentiments”:“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happines”

Women and the Declaration

“Declaration of Sentiments”:Modeled on Declaration of Independence but substituted tyranny of men for the king

Women and the Declaration

“Declaration of Sentiments”:“The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.”

Women and the Declaration

Suffragists of late 19th and early 20th century also relied on Declaration

Women and the Declaration

Declaration of the Rights of Women by National Woman Suffrage Association, July 4, 1876Susan B. Anthony

Women and the DeclarationDeclaration of the Rights of Women“And now, at the close of a hundred years, as the hour hand of the great clock that marks the centuries points to 1876, we declare our faith in the principles of self-government; our full equality with man in natural rights; that woman was made first for her own happiness, with the absolute right to herself—to all the opportunities and advantages life affords, for her complete development; and we deny that dogma of the centuries, incorporated in the codes of all nations—that woman was made for man—her best interests, in all cases, to be sacrificed to his will.”