The Meaning of the Declaration to Different Groups
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Different groups begin to wonder what “all men are created equal” means for them.
As men and women, enslaved and free, hear the Declaration’s words that “all men are created equal,” they begin to wonder what it means for them.
From
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Episodes presented in 4K UHD on supported devices. Corporate funding for THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION was provided by Bank of America. Major funding was provided by The Better Angels Society and...
The Meaning of the Declaration to Different Groups
Clip: Special | 1m 28sVideo has Closed Captions
As men and women, enslaved and free, hear the Declaration’s words that “all men are created equal,” they begin to wonder what it means for them.
From
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipAmong those who heard the Declaration read at Ticonderoga was private Lemuel Haynes, a free African-American from Granville, Massachusetts.
He understood right away what it might mean for people like him, and wrote an essay entitled "Liberty Further Extended."
♪ Voice: Liberty is a jewel which was handed down to man from the cabinet of heaven.
It hath pleased God to make "of one blood all nations of men for to dwell upon the face of the earth."
And as all are of one species, therefore, we may reasonably conclude that liberty is equally as precious to a Black man as it is to a White one, and bondage equally as intolerable to the one as it is to the other.
[Lemuel Haynes] Maggie Blackhawk: The Declaration of Independence was deeply significant to people at the margins.
It gave them a space of moral argument.
It gave them a space of legal argument that could be leveraged to reshape United States democracy and become a part of it.
And we are going to push every lever we had to be able to make this democracy real, and to make these visions, these values real, rather than hypocritical.
♪
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Episodes presented in 4K UHD on supported devices. Corporate funding for THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION was provided by Bank of America. Major funding was provided by The Better Angels Society and...