A Radical Declaration
The Declaration of Independence argued that all men were created equal and possessed rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It rejected monarchy and declared that governments required the consent of the governed.
An Unfinished Promise
The revolutionary language inspired resistance to inherited authority and later abolitionist movements. Yet slavery remained central to the Southern economy, especially on tobacco and rice plantations. By the 1770s, enslaved Africans made up about one-fifth of the population.
Two Paths After Independence
Northern states gradually abolished slavery, and the number of free Black people increased. In the Upper South, manumission became easier for a time. But the nation also ended its involvement in the Atlantic slave trade only after millions had already been enslaved in the United States.
The founding republic therefore contained two competing principles: universal rights and racial bondage. That contradiction was not a footnote to the Revolution. It became one of the central forces driving American law, expansion, political parties, and ultimately civil war.