LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
HELMS SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT
Jefferson’s Equality
Analytic Essay
Submitted to Dr. Michael Robinson
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
PLCY702-D04
Foundation Era and the Constitution
by
Reagan Brackett
April 3, 2022
2
Introduction
Thomas Jefferson played an extremely important role during the foundation era of the
United States. He was the author of the Declaration of Independence, the first secretary of state
in the United States, the second vice president, the third president of the United States, and the
man who made the Louisiana Purchase. As the primary draftsman of the Declaration of
Independence and the author of many different correspondence and works we are able to analyze
these pieces of writing to define how Thomas Jefferson intended for the word equality to mean in
the Declaration of Independence. We can examine the original draft to gain more insight on how
Jefferson specifically, without the edits of the others, views equality and the type of equality he
determined to obtain for the American people. Being able to compare the original draft to the
final document, we can see how the others involved disagreed with Jefferson’s idea of equality
and that meant for the new country. Since the concept of equality is a very controversial and
contested concept in American political thought even today, it is important to examine how the
Founding Fathers were meaning the word when they used it in the Declaration of Independence
to see if it gives precedent to how people today are trying to define it. This essay analyzes the
works of Thomas Jefferson, as well as other authors who examine Jefferson’s idea of equality
