Life and Liberty

Dreams of Equality for all in America

American’s were guaranteed Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, however, not every American received these rights; this later led to a revolt by all American women, as well as all American men of any color other than white. To lead the charge of equality for women was none other than Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton went on to write a parody of Jefferson’s Declaration entitled Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions that expressed her views of how women were being treated and how the Declaration guaranteed equality to Americans. Stanton brought to light that although still American, American women were not being treated with equality. Stanton goes into detail of many issues that she felt needed to be addressed and dealt with to bring equality to American women. To lead the idea that the men and women of color, primarily African American or black men and women, were not receiving these rights, was Frederick Douglass. Douglass wrote a narrative of his views entitled From Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. . Douglass brought to light of the people just how awful African Americans were being treated in this narrative in written descriptions of his own experiences. These descriptions included not only the mistreatment Douglass himself received but also Douglass writes of abuse against two slave girls named Henrietta and Mary, they were ages 22 and 14 respectively. At the time that all of this was going on (throughout 1800 America) the only ones with real rights and ability to live by Jefferson’s Declaration were white American males. If you were a white American male in these times, you were of the highest regard to treatment and suffered minimal, if any consequence for your action against the latter. It seems understandable that white American males would not want people of color or women to do what Stanton and Douglass did simply because...