all men are created equal

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...


Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson as quoted in John Adams by David McCullough. Simon and Schuster, 2001. p.136

both imminent and inevitable

At least at the rhetorical level, the egalitarian principles on which the American revolutionaries had based their war for independence from Great Britain placed slavery on the permanent defensive and gave what seemed at the time a decisive advantage to the antislavery side of any debate. Jefferson's initial draft of the Declaration of Independence had included language that described the slave trade as the perverse plot of an evil English monarch designed to contaminate innocent colonists. Though the passage was deleted by the Continental Congress in the final draft, it nevertheless captured the nearly rhapsodic sense that the American Revolution was both a triumphant and transformative moment in world history, when all laws and human relationships dependent on coercion would be swept away forever. And however Utopian and excessive the natural rights section of the Declaration ("We hold these truths to be self-evident") might appear later on, in the crucible of the revolutionary moment it gave lyrical expression to a widespread belief that a general emancipation of slaves was both imminent and inevitable, the natural consequence and fitting capstone of a glorious liberation from medieval mores historically associated with the very British government that Americans were rejecting. If the Bible were a somewhat contradictory source when it came to the question of slavery, the Declaration of Independence, the secular version of American scripture, was an unambiguous tract for abolition.


Founding brothers: the revolutionary generation by Joseph J. Ellis. Vintage Books, 2000. p.88-89

a Declaration of Independence

Heaven hath decreed that tottering empire Britain to irretrievable ruin and thanks to God, since Providence hath so determined, America must raise an empire of permanent duration, supported upon the grand pillars of Truth, Freedom, and Religion, encouraged by the smiles of Justice and defended by her own patriotic sons…. Permit me then to recommend from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my country’s cause, a Declaration of Independence, and call upon the world and the great God who governs it to witness the necessity, propriety and rectitude thereof.


Nathanael Green writing to Samuel Ward in 1776 by David G. McCullough. Simon & Schuster, 2005. p.68

An odd but important fact is that, in what [Jefferson] called his "original Rough draft," he did put it more clearly. "We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable," he wrote, "that all men are created equal and independent; that from that equal creation they derive certain inherent & inalienable rights..." "Created equal and independent" is better than the flat "created equal." because it focuses the meaning Jefferson intended for "equal": it implies social equality, with nobody naturally entitled to lord it over anybody else. Moreover, the original "from that equal creation they derive... inherent & inalienable rights" also clarifies the import of "all men are created equal" - that is, that all are equally entitled (regardless of innate disparities) to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," because these rights are derived from the equal creation. The equal creation and the entitlement to the inalienable rights are inextricably linked: one is essentially the meaning of the other. It is not known whether Jefferson made the changes on his own (although they appear to be in his handwriting), or whether they resulted from consultations with his committee members Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. Either way, they are a demonstration that editing does not always guarantee improvement.


E.M. Halliday, Understanding Thomas Jefferson by E.M. Halliday, 2001. p.223