Analytic Essay
Nicholas Merritt
PLCY 702
September 12, 2021
Introduction
This nation was founded over two hundred years ago on foundational principles that
included life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and equality. Still to this day, equality remains a
major concern with most minority groups in the United States. The struggle for equality has
grown exponentially from matters of skin color, to gender equality, and more recently
transgender rights. The founding principle of equality was written into the Declaration of
Independence by Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. The Committee of
Five originally tasked John Adams with drafting the document, but Adams convinced them that
Jefferson was the best person for the job1. Jefferson, using inspiration from philosophers such as
Locke and Montesquieu began drafting the document which included one of the most famous
phrases in world history. The phrase “all men are created equal” served as a lynch pin for
equality in the young democracy. As we saw in the years to follow with slavery and still see
today, all men are not actually treated equal. This essay will examine what Jefferson might have
actually meant when he referred to equality.
The Declaration of Independence
The word equal is only written two times in the Declaration of Independence. The first
instance is located in the first paragraph where it is discussed that “the separate and equal station
to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them”. This does not refer to the
equality of man. The second instance is found in the second paragraph and it is very much
pertinent to the equality of man discussion. “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”. The wording of this sentence leaves
1 “Congress Appoints Committee of Five to Draft the Declaration of Independence,” accessed September 9,
2021, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-appoints-committee-of-five-to-draft-the-declaration-of-
independence.
little room for interpretation. All men are created equal, but does that include women or slaves?
As we saw in the continued institution of slavery, people of color were not included into this
statement.
The original rough draft of the Declaration included a provision that called out King
George and the atrocity of slavery. The paragraph stated “He [King George III] has waged a
cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the
persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery.
Determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his
negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable
commerce”2. This statement does not provide a pathway to make slavery illegal in the country,
but it does tell us how Jefferson felt about it.
When Jefferson uses the word execrable in his initial draft, we can deduce Jefferson’s
thoughts on slavery. The term execrable, or extremely bad, and the all men are created equal
statement show that Jefferson was wholeheartedly against slavery. When Jefferson presented his
draft to the Committee of Five, he was asked to remove the paragraph chastising the King for his
support of the execrable atrocity of slavery. Thus, we are left to interpret the “all men are created
equal” statement to simply refer to white men. Stanford scholar Jack Rakove has a different
interpretation of Jefferson’s true meaning of all men are created equal. Rakove claims that when
Congress adopted the text, they did not mean it to intend equality for the individual, rather a call
for statehood3.
The founding fathers concluded that as American colonists, all men are created equal
under the thought that they hade the same right to self-govern as other established nations
2 “Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents,” accessed September 9,
2021, https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html.
3 Melissa De Witte, “When Thomas Jefferson Penned “all Men Are Created Equal,” He Did Not Mean Individual
Equality, Says Stanford Scholar,” Stanford News Service, July 1, 2020,
according to Rakove. The scholar uses the separate and equal station statement from the first
paragraph as his defense. Since the founders possessed that right, they could establish new
government in each of the states and attain their separate and equal station among other nations4.
Rakove poses an originalist point of view here as it pertains to the Constitution. Rakove believes
that the term all men are created equal should mean what the founders meant at the time the
document was drafted, a call for statehood. Abraham Lincoln took this statement at face value,
leaving no room for interpretation. Lincoln, in a letter to James N. Brown said “I believe the
declaration that "all men are created equal" is the great fundamental principle upon which our
free institutions rest; that negro slavery is violative of that principle”5.
While Thomas Jefferson may have attempted to bring to light the atrocities and
subsequent rejection of slavery, his fellow founders on the committee voted to leave it out. The
original draft blamed the British government for imposing slavery on the American colonies.
Before the Revolutionary War, Jefferson’s home state of Virginia made attempts to implement
limits on slave trade. These attempts were squashed by the British government. The reason this
paragraph was omitted from the final draft was to avoid hypocrisy and embarrassment. Morally,
members of Congress knew slavery was wrong, but did not want to abolish it because of the
financial profit slavery provided them. Also, to have written in the Declaration that all men are
created equal, coupled with the acknowledgement that slavery was evil, while still having
legalized slavery in the country would have been highly hypocritical.
A Summary View of the Rights of British America
Before the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote a paper
titled A Summary View of the Rights of British America which he explained justifications for the
4 Melissa De Witte, “When Thomas Jefferson Penned “all Men Are Created Equal,” He Did Not Mean Individual
Equality, Says Stanford Scholar,” Stanford News Service, July 1, 2020,
5 “Lincoln On Slavery,” accessed September 9, 2021, https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/slavery.htm.
Boston Tea Party, the American Revolution, and the importance of equality. Jefferson uses the
terms allodial title and feudal title to share with the world what the relationship between Great
Britain and America actually is, compared to what Great Britain claimed. This is important as it
relates to equality in that Jefferson claims that America should be broken free from under the
control of the British Empire, and that equality is one of the reasons why6. If there was ever a
question as to what Jefferson meant in the Declaration regarding equality, his thoughts are
spelled out clearly in this text.
The British government had long claimed feudal title over the original colonies.
Feudalism was how Britain structured society and it involved the holding of land in exchange for
something. It allowed for the nobles of the country to hold land as a tenant of the King. The same
process was put into the colonies, the King gave Feudal title to the colonists still granting himself
control over the land7. In this paper, Jefferson argued that the colonies were not under feudal
title, rather allodial title. “America was not conquered by William the Norman, nor it's lands
surrendered to him or any of his successors. Possessions there are undoubtedly of the Allodial
nature” he said8. Because allodial title is the inalienable ownership beyond the rights of
possession or royal beneficence, Jefferson uses this claim to justify American independence.
Jefferson uses the phrase equal or quality on three occasions in the document when
relating to the equality of men. In the first few sentences, Jefferson says “attempted to be made
by the legislature of one part of the empire, upon those rights which God and the laws have given
equally and independently to all”9. Jefferson calls upon the natural law concepts of Plato and
6 Thomas Jefferson, “A Summary View of the Rights of British America,” accessed September 10,
2021, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/jeffsumm.asp.
7 “Feudal Titles,” accessed September 10, 2021, https://baronage.co.uk/bphtm-01/essay-3.html.
8 Thomas Jefferson, “A Summary View of the Rights of British America,” accessed September 10,
2021, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/jeffsumm.asp.
9 Thomas Jefferson, “A Summary View of the Rights of British America,” accessed September 10,
2021, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/jeffsumm.asp.
Aristotle here as he states that God given rights, and man-made laws are given equally and
independently to all. It is importance to notice here that Jefferson does not say God given rights
are to some, or to men only, or to whites only, he ends the powerful statement with all. When
Rakove claims that the “all men are created equal” statement in the Declaration does not refer to
equality, rather the right to statehood, he uses a later portion of the document where Jefferson
talks about separate and equal station with other nations.
In both of these documents the equality statements are included with religious based
statements. In the Summary, Jefferson writes that equality is God given, and in the Declaration,
he writes that all men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Not only does
Jefferson blatantly state that all men are created equal, but he also reinforces his belief using
biblical principles. Galatians 3:28 says “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor
free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. Jefferson uses biblical and
moral principles to reaffirm his claim that all men are truly created equal. The second use of the
word equality is critical to uncovering Jefferson’s true definition of equality.
“Can any one reason be assigned why 160,000 electors in the island of Great Britain
should give law to four millions in the states of America, every individual of whom is equal to
every individual of them, in virtue, in understanding, and in bodily strength? Were this to be
admitted, instead of being a free people, as we have hitherto supposed, and mean to continue
ourselves, we should suddenly be found the slaves, not of one, but of 160,000 tyrants”10. This
statement by Jefferson contains obvious clues and context clues of his thought on equality. At the
time of the drafting of the Declaration, the American population was just under four million
10 Thomas Jefferson, “A Summary View of the Rights of British America,” accessed September 10,
2021, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/jeffsumm.asp.
people. Jefferson uses that amount, which includes white men, slaves, women, children, and
everyone else, and calls them out as equal and a free people.
Finally, Jefferson declares “No longer persevere in sacrificing the rights of one part of the
empire to the inordinate desires of another; but deal out to all equal and impartial right”11.
Jefferson references equality in relation to slavery here. It was the desire of the British empire to
impose slavery onto the colonies, and Jefferson rejected this imposition and again calls for equal
rights for all mankind. Jon Meacham in his book In the Hands of the People: Thomas Jefferson
on Equality, Faith, Freedom, Compromise, and the Art of Citizenship writes that Jefferson had an
ideal of human equality and placed it into the Declaration. Although that ideal was not realized at
the time, he gave the country a mission statement relating to equality12. Many argue that
Jefferson could not have been referring to equality of all man because he himself was a
slaveowner. Harvard Professor Annette Gordon-Reed argues against that claim. She states that
Jefferson had a commitment to a particular way of life, which was slave ownership at that time,
and that is what made him flawed, it does not mean that Jefferson did not desire equality for all
when he wrote the Declaration13.
Conclusion
It is clear to me that when Thomas Jefferson referred to equality in the Declaration of
Independence, that he was indeed referring to the equality of all men, black or white. Although
he himself was a slaveowner, he attempted to eradicate slavery in his original draft, and was
subsequently forced to remove it. This may have been a flawed decision based on morality, but it
does not change his definition of equality. Time and time again in both the Declaration and the
11 Thomas Jefferson, “A Summary View of the Rights of British America,” accessed September 10,
2021, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/jeffsumm.asp.
12 Thomas Jefferson, In the Hands of the People: Thomas Jefferson On Equality, Faith, Freedom, Compromise, and
the Art of Citizenship, ed. Jon Meacham (New York: Random House, 2020), 1.
13 Annette Gordon-Reed, interview by Christiane Amanpour, June 26, 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-
and-company/video/how-could-a-slaveholder-write-all-men-are-created-equal/.
Summary of Rights in British America, Jefferson affirms his stance that all men were equal, and
that right of equality was granted by God. Viewpoints on this matter by scholars such as Rakove
and others are based on flawed concepts that simply are not backed up by the historical
documents. Originalists might hold the ideal that the Declaration and the Constitution should be
interpreted based on the meaning of the time it was written, however, Jefferson clearly identifies
his meaning in multiple instances.
References
“Congress Appoints Committee of Five to Draft the Declaration of Independence.” Accessed
September 9, 2021. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-appoints-committee-
of-five-to-draft-the-declaration-of-independence.
“Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents.” Accessed September 9,
2021. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html.
De Witte, Melissa. “When Thomas Jefferson Penned “all Men Are Created Equal,” He Did Not
Mean Individual Equality, Says Stanford Scholar,” Stanford News Service, July 1, 2020,
“Feudal Titles.” Accessed September 10, 2021. https://baronage.co.uk/bphtm-01/essay-3.html.
Jefferson, Thomas. “A Summary View of the Rights of British America.” Accessed September
10, 2021. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/jeffsumm.asp.
Jefferson, Thomas. In the Hands of the People: Thomas Jefferson On Equality, Faith, Freedom,
Compromise, and the Art of Citizenship. Edited by Jon Meacham. New York: Random House,
2020.
“Lincoln On Slavery.” Accessed September 9,
2021. https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/slavery.htm.
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