A.P. U.S. Test

The quote "All men are created equal" is arguably the best-known phrase in any American political document, appearing in the opening of the American Declaration of Independence, written by one of the founding fathers Thomas Jefferson on July 4, 1776. But declaring the equality of all men did not, however, prevent the United States from continuing the widespread practice of slavery but, did give a period in which further slave importation was forbade and some slave were voluntarily freed. New republican ideals in the minds of this new revolutionized population gave birth to the idea of democracy which has often presented itself as the greatest enemy of aristocracy. But when it came to who had the right to vote there was a quandary on the true meaning of "All men are created equal"

When Jefferson stated "All men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence it was impossible not to see how applicable it was to black slavery which had be going on for decades. In fact it did however during the Experimental period give a time when Northerners and Southern state forbade further importation of slaves. Northerners also provided liberation to slaves in their borders and in the South some even went to the extent of voluntarily freeing their slaves. Due to the fact that they who had complain of British taxation reducing them to slavery now realized and felt uneasy themselves about there own enslavement of Africans. As agreed by Gordon S. Wood the lack of providing for the legal abolition slavery and Jefferson's own owning of slave throughout his lifetime was a failure post Revolution along with Jefferson's contradiction amongst his creed on equality and the actual practice of slavery. But also the Revolution accomplished creating a way and making it possible for anti-slavery to progress.

The actual principal of "equality" as stated by Jefferson was as adverse to aristocracy as it was to slavery. As concurred by Wood the Revolution destroyed aristocracy as it had been interpreted in the western world, it also not only just eliminated monarchy, but it led to it opposition republicanism. From there reconstituted what Americans meant by public power and a whole a new kind of democratic officeholder. In few states sharp political debates broke out over the role that democracy should play in government. The American shift to republicanism and gradually expanding democracy was the beginning of the end of monarchy, aristocracy,