Name

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Did Americans truly believe that all people were created equal during the time
period from
1776 to 1789?
Round One:
Document Does this document promote the Supporting evidence from document
idea of equality for all people?

Declaration of
Independence

An Address to the Public

Hypothesis A: Did Americans truly believe that all people were created equal during the time
period from 1776 to 1789?

Round Two:
Document Does this document promote the Supporting evidence from document
idea of equality for all people?

Three-fifths Compromise

The American Paradox:

Jeffersonian Equality and
Racial Science

Hypothesis B: Did Americans truly believe that all people were created equal during the time
period from 1776 to 1789?

Round Three:
Document Does this document promote the Supporting evidence from document
idea of equality for all people?

Alexander Hamilton

Final Hypothesis: Did Americans truly believe that all people were created equal during the
time period from 1776 to 1789?
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Documents
First Round:

1. Excerpt from the Declaration of Independence: This

declaration, written by Thomas Jefferson and adopted in 1776,
would become the basis of American beliefs and would guide the
United States in creating its new nation:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created

equal, that they are endowed [given] by their Creator with
certain unalienable [not to be taken away] Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness; that, to
secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving [receiving] their just powers from the consent of the
governed; that whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter
[change] or to abolish [end] it, and to institute new Government,
laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers
in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
Safety and Happiness.

2. Excerpt from An Address to the Public: This is a 1789 speech

by Ben Franklin:

Slavery is such an atrocious [horrible] debasement [violation]

of human nature, that its very extirpation [elimination], if not
performed with solicitous [concerned] care, may sometimes
open up a source of serious evils. The unhappy man, who has
long been treated as a brute animal, too frequently stinks
beneath the common standard of the human species. The galling
chains that bind his body do also fetter [lower] his intellectual
faculties [abilities], and impair the social affections of his heart.
Accustomed [Used] to move like a mere [simple] machine, by
the will of a master, reflection is suspended; he has not the power
of choice; and reason and conscience have but little influence of
his conduct, because he is chiefly governed by the passion of
fear. He is poor and friendless; perhaps worn out by extreme
labor, age, and disease.

Second Round:
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1. Three-fifths Compromise: This was an agreement reached

during the Constitutional Convention in 1787 regarding slavery.
This compromise was included in Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3
of the United States Constitution:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned [divided]

among the several States which may be included within this
Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be
determined by adding the whole Number of free Persons,
including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and
excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

2. Excerpt from The American Paradox: Jeffersonian Equality and

Racial Science by Alexander Boulton. This is an article, written in
1995, taken from the scholarly journal entitled The American
Quarterly:

In the Notes on Virginia, Jefferson formed a catalog [list] of

charges that would be echoed [shared] by many Americans who
shared no Jeffersonian faith in human equality. Jefferson
disparaged [criticized] blacks for that eternal monotony [lack
of energy /passion], which reigns in the countenances
[emotions]. That immovable veil of black which covers all the
emotions of the other race. They smell bad, require less sleep,
lack forethought, and their afflictions [mistakes / negative
behavior] are less felt, and sooner forgotten. Jefferson
concedes [admits] that in memory they are equal to whites;
[but] in reason much inferior [not equal][I]n imagination they
are dull, tasteless, and anomalous [not normal]Never Yet,
Jefferson declared, could I find that a black had uttered a
thought above the level of plain narration [fact]

Third Round:

1. Excerpt from the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

(page 307):

Tabling [ignoring] the slavery issue had been a precondition

[requirement] of union in 1787 and now again in 1790. Though
a passionate slavery critic, Hamilton knew that this inflammatory
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[controversial] issue could wreck the union. He couldnt be both
the supreme nationalist [person supporting a nation /
country] and the supreme abolitionist [person against
slavery]. He certainly couldnt push through his controversial
funding program if he stirred up the slavery question, which was
probably a futile [losing] battle anyway. So this man of infinite
[countless] opinions grew mute [silent] on that all-important
matterHamilton, using the pen name Civis in a newspaper
piece of February 23, 1791, penned the following telling sarcasm
to Madison and Jefferson: As to the negroes, you must be tender
[careful] upon that subjectWho talk most about liberty and
equality?...Is it not those who hold the bill of rights in one hand
and whip for affrighted [scared] slaves in the other?...Thomas
Day, who had written in 1776, If there be an object truly
ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions
of independence with the one hand and with the other
brandishing [holding] a whip over his affrighted slaves.