The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, was written to establish the basis of the revolution that the colonists were planning, and enacting. It expressed the reasons that the colonists claimed as factors for their wants to be independent. A famous line from the Declaration of Independence reads, .

             "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 African 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,.