'We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ These famous words are all that most people remember of the American Declaration of Independence, but the text as a whole is far more complex and subtle than this piece of liberal rhetoric might suggest.
Like many ground-breaking documents in the history of government, the Declaration is firmly planted in a highly specific historical context. The rhetoric of universal human rights occupies only 20 per cent of the 1,340-word document. Over 60 per cent of it is a detailed list of grievances which the American colonists felt against George III and the British government.
It includes very illiberal attitudes towards black slaves and Native Americans. The British had called upon the slave population of the southern states to rise against their masters and make common cause with the British troops. The Declaration complains that George III has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
It is easy to be critical of the Declaration when you read beyond its first two inspirational paragraphs. But the purpose of the historian is to understand, not to criticise, and the real fascination of the document relates to its precise dating, and the diplomatic tight-rope it walks.
The American Declaration of Independence does three main things:
It advances a theoretical case for revolution, discusses human rights and the nature of national sovereignty.It sets out a precise list of the specific complaints which the American colonists had against the actions of the British government over the last decade and a half.It declares the 13 British colonies on the east coast of North America independent on 4 July 1776. Each of these three has to be set in an historical context if we are to understand or make sense of the Declaration of Independence. Perhaps the most interesting and most important of them is the first, but we shall discuss that last. Let’s look first at why the Americans were discontented at being part of the British empire and why they declared independence when they did. And note that the when is every bit as important as the why.