Research Paper on:
Declaration of Independence Quote Examination

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Independence: "We hold the truth to be self-evident, that all me are created equal, they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that amongst these are life, liberty  and the pursuit of happiness." Most people today merely take for granted that this statement, this declaration, applies to all people regardless of race, culture, or gender. However, during the  time that this particular document was written the focus was only on white men, not on women, not on the poor, and certainly not on Asians, African slaves, or any  other group of individuals that was not a controlling male white force in the nation. Women and blacks, to be specific in this examination, were not considered to be citizens.  As such they were not considered to be included under the declaration. Women were not men, and did not have the power or the abilities that men possessed. Slaves, the  black individuals, were not even really considered human, much less members of a society that relied on white men for rules and regulations. As such no individual other than powerful,  land owning, decision making, white men were considered covered under this particular declaration. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were not things that were given as rights to anyone  other than those who made the decisions, and those that made the decisions were the white men, and predominantly the white men who owned land and power. Interestingly enough,  however, the declaration was made so that it could evolve into what we see today. It possessed the ability to move and change and eventually come to stand for the  rights of all humanity in the nation. As one author indicates, "In the years before and during the Civil War and again in the civil rights era of the 1950s