"Some Americans were clearly omitted from this circle of united interest drawn by the Declaration of Independence: Indians, black slaves, women." - Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States (Page 72)I recall that we talked a lot about the exclusion of certain groups from the Declaration of Independence. We praise Thomas Jefferson so much for his work, it's easy to forget the reality behind the elegant words. The reasons could possibly be that the exlcusion was not on purpose. Or, that Jefferson felt obligated to keep the institution of slavery in place. However, Zinn argues that not only was Jefferson award of the exlcusion, but because he referred heavily to John Locke's Second Treatise of government he must have know that this was wrong.
Having thoroughly studied John Locke's Second treatise of government, I think that the parallels between the two are too strong to disregard the influence. I thought about our class discussion and opinions of my classmates for awhile, and I've decided that the gilded words hide an ugly truth. The United States of America was founded on exclusion. It is only through an evolution of ourselves that this has changed.
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