On today’s American Studies test, we were asked to analyze liberty or natural right. In it, I wrote that the word "liberty" was manipulated in that time period. This was so because the people of America had been using the term for their own advantage. For example, it is stated in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal". In the document, Thomas Jefferson and the men of Congress believed that all people were endowed the rights by their Creator or their God. Using this strong statement, they conveyed their message, and forced their way to acquire their freedom from the Great Britain’s rules. Now that they were over with the British oppression, they soon began to show some tyrannical action towards the black men and the slaves. In consequence, a group of angry abolitionists rose up to fight against the immoral and unjust society. In return, the white men, including Taney, manipulated and “tweaked” the Declaration, in so claiming that what the founding father meant by “all men” was a group of “rich, white males”. Thus, the blacks were silenced each time like this. As I was writing this on the paper, I remembered the first journal from American Literature, which was “Is man born good or evil?”. Even though people’s opinion may differ due to their impact from religion and others, the fact that men are evil still stays the same. Throughout the American history, there were lots of evil found in the action, the men, and the country itself, and it all started from “liberty”.
I do agree with your point that the word "liberty" has been twisted and used for the benefit of the white men in this. My question is though, do you think that other groups have been silenced each time as well? I understand that this was about how black people have been silenced by these statements however you mentioned that all men instead meant rich white males. In saying that did you also mean the non rich, non white, and non male?
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