Declaration Of Independence Research Paper

The Declaration of Independence states that all people have the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Unfortunately, unless you were a rich white male, you had to fight for that right. Many of our ancestors worked tirelessly for the rights that we have today; tearing down barriers so that we, their distant relatives would never have to experience them. They faced abuse and ridicule with their heads held high, telling the privileged few “We will have our rights!” While we will never be able to thank them, we owe them our time. Time to hear their stories and time to learn from them. It can be said that the white non-elite males were treated with more respect than other radicals, but they still had their problems. The Stamp Act was hurting them financially, and they wanted it to end. On August 14, 1765, the men staged a demonstration against Andrew Oliver, the distributer of the stamps. They created an effigy of Oliver and cut its head off. When the Lieutenant Governor and the Sheriff tried to stop them, they took the valuables, drank his wine and tore Oliver’s house down to the ground. The men also held protests in the streets as well as tarring and feathering merchants that sold British goods. In the end, the leaders feared that the slaves would copy these tactics in order to gain freedom. So, a compromise was struck

They killed them for their land, tried to “civilize” them and refused to give them the right to vote in the country they originally inhabited. Some of the Native Americans worked with the white men to help assure a better future for themselves and their people, but it did little to help their cause. Native Americans were eventually declared part of their own nation, and not citizens of America. This stopped them from being able to vote. In 1924, congress granted them citizenship, but due to state laws many of them couldn’t vote until