Primary Source: American Revolution
While the rhetoric of the American Revolution glowed with exultations of liberty, freedom, and the equality of all men, these principles did not extend to the entirety of colonial society. The most glaring irony of the Revolution, even since its inception, has been the existence of slavery in the 13 colonies. In a slave’s 1777 petition to the Massachusetts General Court entitled “Natural and Inalienable Right to Freedom,” the petitioner employs the same rhetoric as the Founding Fathers. This document illustrates not only the irony of the circumstances, but also the visibility of that irony in a society that glorified freedom while enslaving its fellow man. Echoing the line in the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights[…],” the petitioner writes that, “your [referring to the Massachusetts General Court] Petitioners apprehend that thay [they] have in Common with all other men a Natural and Unaliable [inalienable] Right to that freedom which the Grat Parent of the Unavers hath Bestowed equalley on all menkind.” Jefferson in his use of “Creator” and the petitioner in his use of “Grat Parent of the Unavers” both employ the ethos of G-d in their assertion that rights are inherent among men and are derived from G-d. Yet in the majority of American history, this concept will only be applied to white (and sometimes only white and native born) individuals. This petition demonstrates the deep divide so prevalent in American history between the ideals of society and society’s actions. The petitioner is clearly well-versed in the rhetoric of his times and has certainly grasped the hypocrisy of this rhetoric when juxtaposed to contemporary events.
(Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 5th Series, III (Boston, 1877), pp. 436–37.)
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