"We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; 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 secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." [Jefferson 175]

Many argue over what Jefferson meant when he said, "that all men are created equal" but it becomes quite evident, based on his actions in life, and the positions he takes during debates, that he meant that "all rich, white, land owning males are created equal, and guaranteed to the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Benjamin Banneker wrote to Jefferson in 1791 in response to Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia". He discussed how all men in the late 1700s were most definitely not equal. Even if he wasn't born a slave, being the son of free Af

To the slave, in America, the celebration of freedom was absent. There was no liberation. There was no release from the oppression that they were dealt with. There was no reason to celebrate the Fourth of July like any other white American would, because it meant nothing to them. Frederick Douglass wrote about this in his "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" piece. Unlike Banneker, Douglass was born a slave in Maryland. He first hand experienced the unjust treatment of African Americans which made Jefferson's "All men are created equal" part of the Declaration totally seem false in the "All men" sense. How could Jefferson mean this, when he was in fact the owner of slaves; people just like Frederick Douglass, and other potential brilliant minds. Douglass wrote,

rican American parents, he knew of the pain and suffering his fellow African Americans were dealing with. In his letter, he managed to give evidence that African American mental abilities were equal to whites, and sometimes even above. [Banneker 189]. Differences between blacks and whites were less than Jefferson, and most white American males thought, and Banneker was most definitely the person who could be used to show such a fact. In his letter to Jefferson, he writes,

"Sir I freely and cheerfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race, and in that color which is natural to them of the deepest dye, and it is under a Sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme ruler of the universe, that I now confess to you, that I am not under that state of tyrannical thralldom, and inhuman captivity, to which too many

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Approximate Word count = 1076
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)