Saturday, July 5, 2014

The Declaration of Independence

It's everyone's favorite Declaration. The truths we hold self evident - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - were of course limited then to white men, and particularly to property owning white men.  Slaves certainly were not free, nor were women who when married could not hold property apart from their husbands. It took civil war and the 14th Amendment to start fixing that.
And there is among the grievances this racist rant against the King of England: :
"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions." - GWC

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