Carli Heath-Stanley

University Honors with Honors in Political Science

Major: Political Science

Supervisor: Earl Sheridan, Political Science

“All men are created equal?”: The Changing Meaning in the Declaration of Independence

When drafting the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson included the phrase “all men are created equal.” In my honors thesis entitled, “All men are created equal?”: The Changing Meaning in the Declaration of Independence, I assert that the meaning of this phrase has gone on a journey and essentially changed throughout four major eras of American history – the Founding Era of 1770-1790, the Antebellum/Civil War/Reconstruction Era of 1820-1877, the Jim Crow of 1877-1954, and the Civil Rights Era of 1954-1968 with defining events such as the United States Constitution, Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1877, and Brown v. Board of Education case marking each of the respective eras. In doing a literature review of major works concerning the Declaration of Independence and examining the lives and work of major figures in each of these eras, “all men are created equal” changes in definition thus making the Declaration of Independence a fluid document.