American Rvolution And Equality

Páginas: 7 (1595 palabras) Publicado: 5 de diciembre de 2012
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION UNLEASHED POWERUL IDEAS OF EQUALITY. DISCUSS FOCUSING ON EITHER WOMEN OR AFRICAN AMERICAN SLAVES.
1. Equality in the Age of the American Revolution
What we have to do first in order to understand the idea of equality in the American Revolution society is an examination of its use in the mind of the Founders, tracing their view into further developments in Americanhistory. However, the concept of equality was not an invention of the Founders themselves: they gleaned it from the intellectual climate that had been created by the Enlightenment and from colonial experience. The typical philosophy argued that since sovereignty in political society rests with the people, a certain sense of equality follows. Yet this sovereignty was delegated, the philosophy argued,to the crown or to other rulers. But the notion that equality could be part of society at all was part of their theoretical or mythical claim that equality had to be part of the State of Nature.
Social and economic equality was not a constitutive principle of the American system created in the Revolution and embodied in the Constitution. Inequalities in America did exist, above all and in anobvious way, among the aspects of wealth, rank, manners, dress, speech, family, and intellect. Of these, says Miller, "Wealth was the outstanding criterion for high social standing, and as long as inequalities of wealth were comparatively slight, it was easy for Americans to associate political democracy with equality."
Concerning equality, Miller observes further that "the concept of equality itselfhad a meaning peculiar to America. As a belief it did not imply that the rich should be reduced to the level of the poor." Here we can clearly see one of the principal differences between equalitarianism in the 19th and the 20th century: equality was not a device to be used for erasing of social distinctions. Continuing, Miller captures the essence of the idea in that age when he notes that"equality meant that each person should have an equal chance to outstrip his neighbor and become rich himself."
It is necessary to emphasize the point the Miller is making. He argues that while there was great interest in the idea of equality in this age, it was defined in a very different way from that in a later age. Equality was tied to opportunity and in this sense it was closely related to thefundamental concept of the American Revolution, namely, freedom. In this age each man wanted to be free to seek a better life, he wanted to have an equal chance to rise on the ladder of well-being. Americans could see the expansion of economic wealth around them and they wanted to be free to gain part of it for themselves.
2. Women’s situation before the American Revolution
Before the women’srights movement in 1948 there was a remarkable lack of participation of women in society in the United States. They were underestimated and totally excluded of the social life. They could not participate in activities such as voting and fighting in wars. They also could not own property and belonged to their father until they were married, when they would then become the property of their husband.They were brought up to get married, often while they were still very young, then to become a good mother and housewife. The lack of activity though changed during the American Revolution that lasted from 1775 to 1783. This American Revolutionary experience had a great impact on the eventual movement for women’s rights.

Previous to their rights’ movement, women were considered, by law, to beinferior to men. They could not also have separate existence from their husbands and every one of their possessions, no matter if they had been acquired or inherited, would be passed on to the ownership of their husbands. Even the children in a marriage belonged only to the father and the custody of the children, in event of divorce, was usually given to him. By the death of her husband, a woman...
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