Those left out of the Declaration of Independence
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 21, 2026
By Susan Martin
League of Women Voters of the San Juans
“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.”
These words still resonate throughout the world 250 years after the Declaration was signed. Yet, as lofty as the sentiments of the Declaration are, the United States and many other countries continue to struggle in honoring the document’s self-evident truths.
At the time of the Revolutionary War, many of those living in what came to be the United States were left out of the declaration, denied their unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In fact, most Americans in 1776 were denied these rights.
In effect, the principles of the Declaration applied only to white men with property. When the Constitution was adopted, leaving the determination of who could vote to states, many jurisdictions did not allow white men without property, women, free and enslaved blacks, and Indigenous peoples to have the rights that wealthy men saw as unalienable.
The failure to provide rights was not without debate at the time. Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner, included the growth of slavery as a grievance against King George: “He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.” When the document was presented to the committee responsible for preparing the Declaration, however, the statement on slavery was withdrawn.
By the time of the Declaration, it was known that enslaved men had risked their lives for independence. Crispus Attucks, a fugitive enslaved man, was the first casualty of the American Revolution when he was killed by British soldiers during the Boston Massacre in March 1770. Prince Estabrook, an enslaved man from Lexington, was injured while confronting British forces on Lexington Green in April 1775. Philip Abbot and Peter Salem, also slaves, died at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775.
The founders were aware that Indigenous peoples had sophisticated political systems but they did not have the vote. Indeed, Benjamin Franklin referred to the six nations that formed the Iroquois Confederacy in New York and Canada as favorable role models, while still calling them “Ignorant Savages.” Although historians differ on whether the Iroquois Confederacy influenced the early institutions of the new republic, Franklin was aware that the confederacy had lasted from about 1450, proving that a confederation of 13 states was feasible.
Women also played important roles in the Revolutionary War, although they were not recognized as having inalienable rights. Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, future president, was an early proponent of women’s rights. During the discussion of the declaration, she sent a letter asking her husband to “remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
Adams’ friend, Mercy Otis Warren, was another proponent of women’s rights. Even before the declaration, she penned articles, poems and satirical plays supporting independence and denouncing the British crown and its supporters. Later, “History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution” was published, featuring her own name rather than being published anonymously. As one reviewer noted, “through this work, she continued to demonstrate her beliefs that women should freely express ideas about politics and even governmental structures.”
The Declaration is an impressive but not perfect document. It promises a lot, yet it took years for most Americans to obtain the self-evident rights called for in the document. In today’s environment, it is ever more important to protect those hard-fought rights and ensure that political leaders uphold their responsibilities under the Declaration and the U.S. Constitution. Only then will Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness be available to all persons.
