The Preamble’s idealistic statement of [[Enlightenment]] political values has become part of America’s identity and thousands of people each year make pilgrimages to see the original document in Washington, DC. However, the [[Declaration of Independence|Declaration]] also highlights the fundamental contradiction of the [[American Revolution]]: the conflict between slavery and the idea that “all men are created equal.” Two-fifths of the colonial population in 1776 was enslaved, and in many southern colonies [[Slavery|enslaved]] Africans equaled or even outnumbered free whites. At the time he drafted the Declaration, [[Reading Notes/Thomas Jefferson]] himself owned more than a hundred slaves and was an advocate of breeding slaves and then selling the “natural increase” for a profit. The Declaration understood equality as existing only among white men. Women and Africans were entirely left out of a document that also referred to [[Native Americans|Native]] peoples as “merciless Indian Savages” who it claimed indiscriminately killed men, women, and children for no reason. But with all its flaws, the idealistically-worded promise of equality for all planted seeds for future struggles that would be waged by slaves, women, and many others to extend the reach of equality to more Americans and ultimately all Americans. Much of American history is the story of ongoing struggle to reach of the promise of equality expressed in the Declaration of Independence. It’s worth considering whether we would have worked so hard toward that goal, had these flawed [[Patriot|Patriots]] not expressed those aspirations? ---- Next: [[7.10 - British Take New York]] Back: [[7.8 - Declaration of Independence]]