Are All Men Created Equal Essays

Are All Men Created Equal Essays Are All Men Created Equal Essay Are All Men Created Equal Essay Vanity Finley HST 230 Writing Assignment 2 The United States constitution proclaimed that all men are created equal. However, it would be more accurate to say that all white men are created equal. The goals of liberty, freedom, self-government and democratic rule seem to only affect the white man. African Americans can be used as one example of a minority group that demonstrates these goals were not meant for everyone; just for the white majority. Whites treated all minority groups with a great deal of inequality, especially the African Americans. This group of people was by no means treated as equal to white men. The goals of liberty, freedom, and self government were never part of their lives. They had no freedom because they were property. They had a master/owner and they were expected to do exactly as they were told. Freedom and liberty refer to the idea of not being controlled by an external force. It is not possible to be free if someone owns you and makes you do as they say. The textbook makes a good argument about the inequality of African Americans through the three-fifths compromise. According to this clause, African Americans count as three-fifths of a vote. Slave owners could turn in three-fifths of their total slave population for representation and apportionment of taxes. This clearly demonstrates how superior whites thought themselves to be. Slaves were only a little over half the worth of a white manâ„ ¢s vote. As if only counting as three-fifths of a person wasnâ„ ¢t bad enough, this clause was only made to satisfy white slave owners. If it had not been beneficial to slave owners, then the clause would never had came into being. The ideas of self-government and democratic rule were fitting to whites but not blacks. These two ideas are based on the belief that the people of a society should make the rules and govern the society. If society were strictly white, then these two ideas were real and alive. The upper class white men did make the rules and they were the people governing the country. However, African Americans had no say so in laws or policy, and they never held office. It they have no say so or no representation then how can it be assumed that they were self-governing One of the more obvious ways in which minorities were not treated equal can be found in Article 4, Section 2 of the Constitution. This article demonstrates how all minorities, not just African Americans, were treated as lesser people. This section confined citizenship to white property holding males. As for immigrants, only free white persons could become citizens. The white men who wrote the constitution believed n the ideas and goals of liberty, freedom, self-government, and democratic rule. However, these ideas only pertained to themselves. All minorities were excluded from these ideas and goals because it would interfere with the white men achieve the same goals. The white men stayed in government and on top of the social chain by treating minorities unjustly. White men enjoyed all of these ideas and goals, but minorities were never treated anywhere near equal during the period from 1776-1850.