American Independence Myths

Many myths are associated with the American War of Independence against Great Britain. Perhaps the greatest of these myths, is the belief that the schism occurred as a result of a simple tax revolt against “big government.” This view of American history contains a flaw; accordingly, the Revolution was not the result of some substantive reason of a greater principle but just a conflict of moneyed personal interests. Between the years of 1763 and 1776, Great Britain and its rebellious colonists were arguing not about bad law, but instead, natural law and the rights of humans. The gentry elite fought against Parliament and the King on the basis that their rights as Caucasian land-owning citizens were being violated to a great extent and all other …show more content…
At the same time that the American colonists were fighting for “unalienable rights,” they were taking away the rights and property of loyalists, barring females from political participation, consolidating the status of slavery, and denying Native Americans basic rights that the tyrant King of Britain awarded them. The example of the Declaration of Independence serves as a strong rallying point for any subordinated classes in America due to the fact that it contains the self-aggrandizing phrase “all men are created equal.” However this phrase has not come to fruition for all Americans, yet it does point to an inconsistency in American law. The text of the Declaration of Independence written at the time of African slave-owning exemplifies controversy; however, what constitutes personhood and property, at this time, was vastly different from the notions of …show more content…
The Americans set a codification of political and constitutional principles at the center of the new government. The Declaration of Independence formed the first part of the founding covenants between government and its people. The fact that the phrase “all men are created equal” is found in the Declaration while its authors own slaves, shows an inconsistency between belief and practice. At the time of political upheaval, fighting and uncompromising views, the Americans codified the abolition of slavery that came decades later. The dream of the American people takes place in that phrase, that “all men are created equal.” America, a nation founded upon negative rights, shows it has been a long lasting constitutional and jurisprudential fight for that statement to be applied to all