this recording is a product of audio anarchy a people's history of the united states by howard zinn chapter four tyranny is tyranny around 1776 certain important people in the english colonies made a discovery that would prove enormously useful for the next 200 years they found that by creating a nation a symbol a legal unity called the united states they could take over land profits and political power from favorites of the british empire in the process they could hold back a number of potential rebellions and create a consensus of popular support for the rule of a new privileged leadership when we look at the american revolution this way it was a work of genius and the founding fathers deserve the odd tribute they have received over the centuries they created the most effective system of national control devised in modern times and showed future generations of leaders the advantages of combining paternalism with command starting with bacon's rebellion in virginia by 1760 there had been 18 uprisings aimed at overthrowing colonial governments there had also been six black rebellions from south carolina to new york and 40 riots of various origins by this time also there emerged according to jack greene quote stable coherent effective and acknowledged local political and social elites and by the 1760s this local leadership saw the possibility of directing much of the rebellious energy against england and her local officials it was not a conscious conspiracy but an accumulation of tactical responses after 1763 with england victorious over france in the seven years war known in america as the french and indian war expelling them from north america ambitious colonial leaders were no longer threatened by the french they now had only two rivals left the english and the indians the british wooing the indians had declared indian lands beyond the appalachians out of bounds to whites the proclamation of 1763 perhaps once the british were out of the way the indians could be dealt with again no conscious forethought strategy by the colonial elite but a growing awareness as events developed with the french defeated the british government could turn its attention to tightening control over the colonies it needed revenues to pay for the war and looked to the colonies for that also the colonial trade became more and more important to the british economy and more profitable it had amounted to about 500 000 pounds in 1700 but by 1770 was worth two million eight hundred thousand pounds so the american leadership was less in need of english rule the english more in need of the colonists wealth the elements were there for conflict the war had brought glory for the generals death to the privates wealth for the merchants unemployment for the poor there were 25 000 people living in new york there had been seven thousand in 1720 when the french and indian war ended a newspaper editor wrote about the growing quote number of beggars and wandering poor unquote in the streets of the city letters in the papers questioned the distribution of wealth quote how often have our streets been covered with thousands of barrels of flour for trade while our near neighbors can hardly procure enough to make a dumpling to satisfy hunger gary nash's study of city tax lists shows that by the early 1770s the top 5 of boston's taxpayers controlled 49 of the city's taxable assets in philadelphia and new york too wealth was more and more concentrated court recorded wills showed that by 1750 the wealthiest people in the cities were leaving twenty thousand pounds equivalent to about five million dollars today in boston the lower classes began to use the town meeting to vent their grievances the governor of massachusetts had written that in those town meetings quote the meanest inhabitants by the constant attendance there generally are the majority and out vote the gentlemen merchants substantial traders and all the better part of the inhabitants what seems to have happened in boston is that certain lawyers editors and merchants of the upper classes but excluded from the ruling circles close to england men like james otis and samuel adams organized a boston caucus and through their oratory and their writing quote molded laboring class opinion called the mob into action and shaped its behavior unquote this is gary nash's description of otis who he says quote keenly aware of the declining fortunes and the resentment of ordinary townspeople was mirroring as well as molding popular opinion we have here a forecast of the long history of american politics the mobilization of lower-class energy by upper-class politicians for their own purposes this was not purely deception it involved in part a genuine recognition of lower class grievances which helps to account for its effectiveness as a tactic over the centuries as nash puts it quote james oates samuel adams royal tyler oxenbridge thatcher and a host of other bostonians linked to the artisans and laborers through a network of neighborhood taverns fire companies and the caucus espoused a vision of politics that gave credence to laboring class views and regarded as entirely legitimate the participation of artisans and even laborers in the political process in 1762 otis speaking against the conservative rulers of the massachusetts colony represented by thomas hutchinson gave an example of the kind of rhetoric that a lawyer could use in mobilizing city mechanics and artisans quote i am forced to give my living by the labor of my hand and the sweat of my brow as most of you are and obliged to go through good report and evil report for bitter bread earned under the frowns of some who have no natural or divine right to be above me and entirely owe their grandeur and honor to grinding the faces of the poor boston seems to have been full of class anger in those days in 1763 in the boston gazette someone wrote that quote a few persons in power were promoting political projects quote for keeping the people poor in order to make them humble unquote accumulated sense of grievance against the rich in boston may account for the explosiveness of mob action after the stamp act of 1765. through this act the british were taxing the colonial population to pay for the french war in which the colonists had suffered to expand the british empire that summer a shoemaker named ebenezer macintosh led a mob in destroying the house of a rich boston merchant named andrew oliver two weeks later the crowd turned to the home of thomas hutchinson symbol of the rich elite who ruled the colonies in the name of england they smashed up his house with axes drank the wine in his wine cellar and looted the house of its furniture and other objects a report by colony officials to england said that this was part of a larger scheme in which the houses of 15 rich people were to be destroyed as part of a quote war of plunder of general leveling and taking away the distinction of rich and poor it was one of those moments in which fury against the rich went further than leaders like otis wanted could class hatred be focused against the pro-british elite and deflected from the nationalist elite in new york that same year of the boston house attacks someone wrote to the new york gazette quote is it equitable that 99 rather 999 should suffer for the extravagance or grandeur of one especially when it is considered that men frequently owe their wealth to the impoverishment of their neighbors the leaders of the revolution would worry about keeping such sentiments within limits mechanics were demanding political democracy in the colonial cities open meetings of representative assemblies public galleries in the legislative halls and the publishing of roll call votes so that constituents could check on representatives they wanted air meetings where the population could participate in making policy more equitable taxes price controls and the election of mechanics and other ordinary people to government posts especially in philadelphia according to nash the consciousness of the lower middle classes grew to the point where it must have caused some hard thinking not just among the conservative loyalists sympathetic to england but even among the leaders of the revolution quote by mid-1776 laborers artisans and small tradesmen employing extra-legal measures when electoral politics failed were in clear command in philadelphia unquote helped by some middle-class leaders thomas paine thomas young and others they quote launched a full-scale attack on wealth and even on the right to acquire unlimited private property unquote during elections for the 1776 convention to frame a constitution for pennsylvania a private committee urged voters to oppose quote great and overgrown rich men they will be too apt to be framing distinctions in society the privates committee drew up a bill of rights for the convention including the statement that quote an enormous proportion of property vested in a few individuals is dangerous to the rights and destructive of the common happiness of mankind and therefore every free state have a right by its laws to discourage the possession of such property in the countryside where most people lived there was a similar conflict of poor against rich one which political leaders would use to mobilize the population against england granting some benefits for the rebellious poor and many more for themselves in the process the tenant riots in new jersey in the 1740s the new york tenant uprisings of the 1750s and 1760s in the hudson valley and the rebellion in northeastern new york that led to the carving of vermont out of new york state were all more than sporadic rioting they were long-lasting social movements highly organized involving the creation of counter-governments they were aimed at a handful of rich landlords but with landlords far away they often had to direct their anger against farmers who had leased the disputed land from the owners see edward countryman's pioneering work on rural rebellion just as the jersey rebels had broken into jails to free their friends rioters in the hudson valley rescued prisoners from the sheriff and one time took the sheriff himself as prisoner the tenants were seen as quote chiefly the dregs of the people and the posse that the sheriff of albany county led to bennington in 1771 included the privileged top of the local power structure the land rioters saw their battle as poor against rich a witness at a rebel leader's trial in new york in 1776 said that the farmers evicted by the landlords quote had an equitable title but could not be defended in a course of law because they were poor and poor men were always oppressed by the rich ethan allen's green mountain rebels in vermont described themselves as quote uh poor people fatigued in settling a wilderness country and their opponents as quote a number of attorneys and other gentlemen with all their tackle of ornaments and compliments and french finesse unquote land hungry farmers in the hudson valley turned to the british for support against the american landlords the green mountain rebels did the same but as the conflict with britain intensified the colonial leaders of the movement for independence aware of the tendency of poor tenants to side with the british in their anger against the rich adopted policies to win over people in the countryside in north carolina a powerful movement of white farmers was organized against wealthy and corrupt officials in the period from 1766 to 1771 exactly those years when in the cities of the northeast agitation was growing against the british crowding out class issues the movement in north carolina was called the regulator movement and it consisted says marvin l michael k a specialist in the history of that movement of quote class conscious white farmers in the west who attempted to democratize local governments in their respective counties unquote the regulators referred to themselves as quote poor industrious peasants as laborers the wretched poor oppressed by rich and powerful designing monsters the regulators saw that a combination of wealth and political power ruled north carolina and denounced those officials quote us highest study is the promotion of their wealth they resented the tax system which was especially burdensome on the poor and the combination of merchants and lawyers who worked in the courts to collect debts from the harassed farmers in the western counties where the movement developed only a small percentage of the households had slaves and 41 of these were concentrated to take one sample western county in less than two percent of the households the regulators did not represent servants or slaves but they did speak for small owners squatters and tenants a contemporary account of the regulator movement in orange county describes the situation quote thus were the people of orange insulted by the sheriff robbed and plundered neglected and condemned by the representatives and abused by the magistracy obliged to pay fees regulated only by the avarice of the officer obliged to pay a tax which they believed went to enrich and aggrandize a few who lauded it over them continually and from all these evils they saw no way to escape for the men in power and legislation were the men whose interest it was to oppress and make gain of the laborer in that county in the 1760s the regulators organized to prevent the collection of taxes or the confiscation of property of tax delinquents officials said quote an absolute insurrection of dangerous tendency has broke out in orange county and made military plans to suppress it at one point 700 armed farmers forced the release of two arrested regulator leaders the regulators petitioned the government on their grievances in 1768 citing quote the unequal chances to poor and a weak have in contentions with a rich and the powerful in another county anson a local militia colonel complained of quote the unparalleled tumults insurrections and commotions which at present distract to this country at one point a hundred men broke up the proceedings at a county court but they also tried to elect farmers to the assembly asserting quote that a majority of our assembly is composed of lawyers clerks and others in connection with them in 1770 there was a large-scale riot in hillsborough north carolina in which they disrupted a court forced the judge to flee beat three lawyers and two merchants and looted stores the result of all this was the assembly passed some mild reform legislation but also an act quote to prevent riots and tumults unquote and the governor prepared to crush them militarily in may of 1771 there was a decisive battle in which several thousand regulators were defeated by a disciplined army using cannon six regulators were hanged k says that in the three western counties of orange anson and rowan where the regulator movement was concentrated it had the support of six thousand to seven thousand men out of a total white taxable population of about eight thousand one consequence of this bitter conflict is that only a minority of the people in the regulator counties seem to have participated as patriots in the revolutionary war most of them probably remained neutral fortunately for the revolutionary movement the key battles were being fought in the north and here in the cities the colonial leaders had a divided white population they could win over the mechanics who were a kind of middle class who had a stake in the fight against england who faced competition from english manufacturers the biggest problem was to keep the properties people who were unemployed and hungry in the crisis following the french war under control in boston the economic grievances of the lower classes mingled with anger against the british and exploded in mob violence the leaders of the independence movement wanted to use that mob energy against england but also to contain it so that it would not demand too much from them when riots against the stamp act swept boston in 1767 they were analyzed by the commander of the british forces in north america general thomas gage as follows quote the boston mob raised first by the instigation of many of the principal inhabitants allured by plunder rose shortly after of their own accord attacked robbed and destroyed several houses and amongst others that of the lieutenant governor people then began to be terrified of the spirit they had raised to perceive that popular fury was not to be guided and each individual feared he might be the next victim to their rapacity the same fears spread through the other provinces and there has been as much pains taken since to prevent insurrections of the people as before to excite them gage's comment suggests that leaders of the movement against the stamp act had instigated crowd action but then became frightened by the thought that it might be directed against their wealth too at this time the top 10 percent of boston's taxpayers held about 66 of boston's taxable wealth while the lowest 30 percent of the taxpaying population had no taxable property at all the properties could not vote and so like blacks women indians could not participate in town meetings this included sailors journeymen apprentices servants dick herder a student of boston mob actions in the revolutionary period calls the revolutionary leadership quote the sons of liberty type drawn from the middling interest and well-to-do merchants a hesitant leadership quote wanting to spur action against great britain yet worrying about maintaining control over the crowds at home it took the stamp act crisis to make this leadership aware of its dilemma a political group in boston called the loyal nine merchants distillers ship owners and master craftsmen who opposed the stamp act organized a procession in august 1765 to protest it they put 50 master craftsmen at the head but needed to mobilize ship workers from the north end and mechanics and apprentices from the south end two or three thousand were in the processions negroes were excluded they marched to the home of the stamp master and burned his effigy but after the gentleman who organized the demonstration left the crowd went further and destroyed some of these stamp masters property these were as one of the loyal nine said quote amazingly inflamed people unquote the loyal nine seemed taken aback by the direct assault on the wealthy furnishings of the stamp master the rich set up armed patrols now a town meeting was called and the same leaders who had planned the demonstration denounced the violence and disavowed the actions of the crowd as more demonstrations were planned for november 1st 1765 when the stamp act was to go into effect and for pope's day november 5th steps were taken to keep things under control a dinner was given for certain leaders of the rioters to win them over and when the stamp act was repealed due to overwhelming resistance the conservative leaders severed their connections with the rioters they held annual celebrations of the first anti-stamp act demonstration to which they invited according to herder not the rioters but quote mainly upper and middle class bostonians who traveled in coaches and carriages to roxbury dorchester for opulent feasts unquote when the british parliament turned to its next attempt to tax the colonies this time by a set of taxes which it hoped would not excite as much opposition the colonial leaders organized boycotts but they stressed quote no mobs or tumults let the persons and properties of your most inveterate enemies be safe unquote samuel adams advised quote no mobs no confusions no tumult and james otis said that quote no possible circumstances though ever so oppressive could be supposed sufficient to justify private tumults and disorders impressment and the quartering of troops by the british were directly hurtful to the sailors and other working people after 1768 2000 soldiers were quartered in boston and friction grew between the crowds and the soldiers the soldiers began to take the jobs of working people when jobs were scarce mechanics and shopkeepers lost work or business because of the colonists boycott to british goods in 1769 boston set up a committee quote to consider of some suitable methods of employing the poor of the town whose numbers and distresses are daily increasing by the loss of its trade and commerce unquote on march 5th 1770 grievances of rope makers against british soldiers taking their jobs led to a fight a crowd gathered in front of the custom house and began provoking the soldiers who fired and killed first crispus addicts a mulatto worker than others this became known as the boston massacre feelings against the british mounted quickly there was anger at the acquittal of six of the british soldiers two were punished by having their thumbs branded and were discharged from the army the crowd at the massacre was described by john adams defense attorney for the british soldiers as quote a motley rebel of saucy boys negroes and mulattos irish teagues and outlandish jacktars unquote perhaps 10 000 people marched in the funeral procession for the victims of the massacre out of a total boston population of 16 000. this led england to remove the troops from boston and try to quiet the situation impressment was the background of the massacre there had been impressment riots through the 1760s in new york and in newport rhode island where 500 semen boys and negroes rioted after five weeks of impressment by the british six weeks before the boston massacre there was a battle in new york of semen against british soldiers taking their jobs and one seaman was killed in the boston tea party of december 1773 the boston committee of correspondents formed a year before to organize anti-british actions quote controlled crowd action against the t from the start dirk herder says the tea party led to the coercive act by parliament virtually establishing martial law in massachusetts dissolving the colonial government closing the port in boston and sending in troops still town meetings and mass meetings rose in opposition the seizure of a powder store by the british led four thousand men from all around boston to assemble in cambridge where some of the wealthy officials had their sumptuous homes the crowd forced the officials to resign the committees of correspondents of boston and other towns welcomed this gathering but warned against destroying private property pauline meyer who studied the development of opposition to britain in the decade before 1776 in her book from resistance to revolution emphasizes the moderation of the leadership and despite their desire for resistance their quote emphasis on order and restraint unquote she knows quote the officers and committee members of the sons of liberty were drawn almost entirely from the middle and upper classes of colonial society unquote in newport rhode island for instance the sons of liberty according to a contemporary writer quote contain some gentleman of the first figure in town for opulence sense and politeness unquote in north carolina quote one of the wealthiest of the gentlemen and freeholders unquote led the sons of liberty similarly in virginia and south carolina and quote new york's leaders too were involved in small but respectable independent business ventures unquote their aim however was to broaden their organization to develop a mass base of wage earners many of the sons of liberty groups declared as in milford connecticut they're quote greatest abhorrence unquote of lawlessness or as in annapolis opposed quote all riots or unlawful assemblies tending toward the disturbance of the public tranquility unquote john adams expressed the same fears quote these tourings and featherings this breaking open houses by the rude and insolent rabbles in resentment for private wrongs or in pursuing of private prejudices and passions must be discounted unquote in virginia it seemed clear to the educated gentry that something needed to be done to persuade the lower orders to join the revolutionary cause to deflect their anger against england one virginian wrote in his diary in the spring of 1774 quote the lower class of people here are in tumult on account of reports from boston many of them expect to be pressed and compelled to go and fight the britons unquote around the time of the stamp act a virginia orator addressed the poor quote are not gentlemen made of the same materials as the lowest and poorest among you listen to no doctrines which may tend to divide us but let us go hand in hand as brothers unquote it was a problem for which the rhetorical talents of patrick henry were superbly fitted he was as rice isaac puts it quote firmly attached to the world of the gentry but he spoke in words that the poorer whites of virginia could understand henry's fellow virginian edmond randolph recalled his style as quote simplicity and even carelessness his pauses which for their length might sometimes be feared to dispel the attention riveted it the more by raising the expectation patrick henry's oratory in virginia pointed a way to relieve class tension between upper and lower classes and form a bond against the british this was to find language inspiring to all classes specific enough in its listing of grievances to charge people with anger against the british vague enough to avoid class conflict among the rebels and stirring enough to build patriotic feeling for the resistance movement thomas paine's common sense which appeared in early 1776 and became the most popular pamphlet in the american colonies did this it made the first bold argument for independence in words that any fairly literate person could understand quote society in every state is a blessing but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil unquote pain disposed of the idea of the divine right of kings by a pungent history of the british monarchy going back to the norman conquest of 1066 when william the conqueror came over from france to set himself on the british throne quote a french bastard landing with an armed banditi and establishing himself king of england against the consent of the natives is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original it certainly had no divinity in it payne dealt with the practical advantages of sticking to england or being separated he knew the importance of economics quote i challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation to show a single advantage that this continent can reap by being connected with great britain i repeat the challenge not a single advantage is derived our corn will fetch its price in any market in europe and our imported goods must be paid for by them where we will as for the bad effects of the connection with england payne appealed to the colonists memory of all the wars in which england had involved them wars costly in lives and money quote but the injuries and disadvantages which we sustain by that connection are without number any submission to or dependence on great britain tends directly to involve this continent in european wars and quarrels and set us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendship he built slowly to an emotional pitch quote everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation the blood of the slain the weeping voice of nature cries tis time to part unquote common sense went through 25 editions in 1776 and sold hundreds of thousands of copies it is probable that almost every literate colonist either read it or knew about its contents pamphleteering had become by this time the chief theater of debate about relations with england from 1750 to 1776 400 pamphlets had appeared arguing one side or another side of the stamp act or the boston massacre or the tea party or the general questions of disobedience to law loyalty to government rights and obligations payne's pamphlet appealed to a wide range of colonial opinion angered by england but it caused some tremors in aristocrats like john adams who were with the patriot cause but wanted to make sure it didn't go too far in the direction of democracy payne had denounced the so-called balanced government of lords and commons as a deception and called for single chamber representative bodies where the people could be represented adams denounced payne's plan as quote so democratical without any restraint or even an attempt at any equilibrium or counterpoise that must produce confusion and every evil work unquote popular assemblies needed to be checked adams thought because they were quote productive of hasty results and absurd judgments paine himself came out of the lower orders of england a stay maker tax official teacher poor immigrant to america he arrived in philadelphia in 1774 when agitation against england was already strong in the colonies the artisan merchants of philadelphia along with journeyman apprentices and ordinary laborers were forming into a politically conscious militia quote in general damned riffraff dirty mutinous and disaffected unquote as local aristocrats described them by speaking plainly and strongly he could represent those politically conscious lower class people he opposed property qualifications for voting in pennsylvania but his great concern seems to have been to speak for a middle group there is an extent of riches as well as an extreme of poverty which by harrowing the circles of a man's acquaintance lessens his opportunities of general knowledge once the revolution was underway payne more and more made it clear that he was not for the crowd action of lower class people like those militia who in 1779 attacked the house of james wilson wilson was a revolutionary leader who opposed price controls and wanted a more conservative government than was given by the pennsylvania constitution of 1776. payne became an associate of one of the wealthiest men in pennsylvania robert morris and a supporter of morris's creation the bank of north america later during the controversy over adopting the constitution payne would once again represent urban artisans who favored a strong central government he seemed to believe that such a government could represent some great common interest in this sense he lent himself perfectly to the myth of the revolution that it was on behalf of a united people the declaration of independence brought that myth to its peak of eloquence each harsher measure of british control the proclamation of 1763 not allowing colonists to settle beyond the appalachians the stamp tax the towns and taxes including the one on t the stationing of troops and the boston massacre the closing of the port of boston and the dissolution of the massachusetts legislature escalated colonial rebellion to the point of revolution the colonists had responded with the stamp act congress the sons of liberty the committees of correspondence the boston tea party and finally in 1774 the setting up of a continental congress an illegal body forerunner of a future independent government it was after the military clash at lexington and concord in april 1775 between colonial minutemen and british troops that the continental congress decided on separation they organized a small committee to draw up the declaration of independence which thomas jefferson wrote it was adopted by the congress on july 2nd and officially proclaimed july 4th 1776. by this time there was already a powerful sentiment for independence resolutions adopted in north carolina in may of 1776 and sent to the continental congress declared independence of england asserted that all british law was null and void and urged military preparations about the same time the town of malden massachusetts responding to a request from the massachusetts house of representatives that all towns in the state declare their views on independence had met in town meeting and unanimously called for independence quote we therefore renounce with disdain our connection with a kingdom of slaves we build a final adju to britain unquote quote when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bans they should declare the causes this was the opening of the declaration of independence then in its second paragraph came the powerful philosophical statement quote 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 that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government it then went on to list grievances against the king quote a history of repeated injuries and usurpations all having indirect object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states unquote the list accused the king of dissolving colonial governments controlling judges sending quote swarms of officers to harass our people unquote sending in armies of occupation cutting off colonial trade with other parts of the world taxing the colonists without their consent and waging war against them quote transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death desolation and tyranny unquote all this the language of popular control over governments the right of rebellion and revolution indignation at political tyranny economic burdens and military attacks was language well suited to unite large numbers of colonists and persuade even those who had grievances against one another to turn against england some americans were clearly omitted from this circle of united interest drawn by the declaration of independence indians black slaves women indeed one paragraph of the declaration charged the king with inciting slave rebellions and indian attacks he has excited domestic insurrections among us and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless indian savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages sexes and conditions twenty years before the declaration a proclamation of the legislature of massachusetts on november 3rd 1755 declared the penobscot indians quote rebels enemies and traitors unquote and provided a bounty quote for every scalp of a male indian brought in 40 pounds for every scalp of such female indian or male indian under the age of 12 years that shall be killed 20 pounds unquote thomas jefferson had written a paragraph of the declaration accusing the king of transporting slaves from africa to the colonies end quote suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this executable commerce unquote this seemed to express moral indignation against slavery and the slave trade jefferson's personal distaste for slavery must be put alongside the fact that he owned hundreds of slaves to the day he died behind it was the growing fear among virginians and some other southerners about the growing number of black slaves in the colonies 20 of the total population and the threat of slave revolts as the number of slaves increased jefferson's paragraph was removed by the continental congress because slaveholders themselves disagreed about the desirability of ending the slave trade so even that gesture toward the black slave was omitted in the great manifesto of freedom of the american revolution the use of the phrase quote all men are created equal unquote was probably not a deliberate attempt to make a statement about women it was just that women were beyond consideration as worthy of inclusion they were politically invisible though practical needs gave women a certain authority in the home on the farm or in occupations like midwifery they were simply overlooked in any consideration of political rights any notions of civic equality to say that the declaration of independence even by its own language was limited to life liberty and happiness for white males is not to denounce the makers and signers of the declaration for holding the ideas expected of privileged males of the 18th century reformers and radicals looking discontentedly at history are often accused of expecting too much from a past political epoch and sometimes they do but the point of noting those outside the arc of human rights and the declaration is not centuries late and pointlessly to lay impossible moral burdens on that time it is to try to understand the way in which the declaration functioned to mobilize certain groups of americans ignoring others surely inspirational language to create a secure consensus is still used in our time to cover up serious conflicts of interests in that consensus and to cover up also the omission of large parts of the human race the philosophy of the declaration that government is set up by the people to secure their life liberty and happiness and is to be overthrown when it no longer does that is often traced to the ideas of john locke in his second treatise on government that was published in england in 1689 when the english were rebelling against tyrannical kings and setting up parliamentary government the declaration like locke's second treaties talked about government and political rights but ignored the existing inequalities in property and how could people truly have equal rights with stark differences in wealth locke himself was a wealthy man with investments in the silk trade and slave trade income from loans and mortgages he invested heavily in the first issue of the stock of the bank of england just a few years after he had written his second treaties as the classic statement of liberal democracy as adviser to the carolinas he had suggested a government of slave owners run by wealthy land barons locke's statement of people's government was in support of a revolution in england for the free development of mercantile capitalism at home and abroad locke himself regretted that the labor of poor children quote is generally lost to the public till they are 12 or 14 years old unquote and suggested that all children over three in families on relief should attend quote working schools unquote so they would be quote from infancy in yord to work unquote the english revolutions of the 17th century brought representative government and opened up discussions of democracy but as the english historian christopher hill wrote in the puritan revolution quote the establishment of parliamentary supremacy of the rule of law no doubt mainly benefited the men of property the kind of arbitrary taxation that threatened the security of property was overthrown monopolies were ended to give more free reign to businesses and sea power began to be used for an imperial policy abroad including the conquest of ireland the levelers and the diggers two political movements which wanted to carry equality into the economic sphere were put down by the revolution one can see the reality of lox nice phrases about representative government in the class divisions and conflicts in england that followed the revolution that locke supported at the very time the american scene was becoming tense in 1768 england was racked by riots and strikes of coal heavers sawmill workers hatters weavers sailors because of the high price of bread and the miserable wages the annual register reviewed the events of the spring and summer of 1768 quote a general dissatisfaction unhappily prevailed among several of the lower orders of the people this ill temper which was partly occasioned but high price of provisions and partly proceeded from other causes too frequently manifested itself in acts of tumult and riot which were productive of the most melancholy consequences the people who were supposedly at the heart of locke's theory of people's sovereignty were defined by a british member of parliament quote i don't mean the mob i mean the middling people of england the manufacturer the yeoman the merchant the country gentlemen unquote in america too the reality behind the words of the declaration of independence issued in the same year as adam smith's capitalist manifesto the wealth of nations was that a rising class of important people needed to enlist on their side enough americans to defeat england without disturbing too much of the relations of wealth and power that had developed over 150 years of colonial history indeed 69 of the signers of the declaration of independence had held colonial office under when england declaration of independence was read with all its flaming radical language from the town hall balcony in boston it was read by thomas crafts a member of the loyal nine group conservatives who had opposed militant action against the british four days after the reading the boston committee of correspondence ordered the townsmen to show up on the common for a military draft the rich it turned out could avoid the draft by paying for substitutes the poor had to serve this led to rioting and shouting tyranny is tyranny let it come from whom it may thus ends chapter 4 of howard zinn's a people's history of the united states very interesting chapter that i feel does not directly address its own premise as oh sorry as always i'll leave you with my thoughts very interesting chapter that i feel does not directly adequately address its own premise enough which is uh strange to say uh its premise of course being that the very foundations of what they the so-called american experiment is um one built in service of the land of gentry the propertied the wealthy over the poor the haves over the have-nots built in service of the one percent always has been and always will be perhaps not even intentionally on all parts but certainly calculatedly something that he leaves out here which i feel is a very interesting uh fact that should not be omitted is that the declaration of independence says that all people are entitled to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that is not the original wording the original wording was that all people are all men are created equal and entitled to life liberty and property property was taken out which serves zinn's thesis here um of the the fact that the nation was primarily built to safeguard the property of the wealthy and many of its institutions i'll say all of its institutions were built to safeguard the property of the wealthy at the expense of the poor revolutionary rhetoric is fairly empty i mean obviously on its face when you own slaves or refuse to even contemplate that certain people belong in in this idea of being created equal but zinn has this fun little argument of like look it doesn't matter we can be angry and and talk about how immoral the founders were all we want that doesn't matter it's a waste of time what matters is saying what is the practical effect of the government they created and the ways they set about establishing that government and the practical effect zen argues is that we have institutions that are built to uphold wealth inequality and they divide us along many many lines they're built more strongly to uphold wealth inequality let's say from a a white man than from a black woman like that they are built even more strongly to uphold that inequality than they are from a rich white man to a poor white man but they are still built to uphold both of those inequities and inequalities in fact even payne's um discussion there of the idea of one house of the house of lords in the house of commons this this illusion of balance we still see to this very day uh in the senate and uh house of representatives the senate of course uh uh where each state gets two representatives regardless of population one of the most undemocratic institutions uh in the world is the united states uh senate well one of the most undemocratic purportedly democratic institutions in the world that is um similarly it is almost impossible to hold a government job without being independently wealthy i remember in virginia recently uh lee carter the the socialist state senator or state representative i should say i believe he was in the house often would point out how unaffordable it was to be in local government um and how that encourages those who are wealthy and have vested interest in the maintenance of wealth at the expense of the have-nots uh uh how that allows that to to propagate itself um and similarly we see these ideas of a large rhetoric about equality you know masking what is really neoliberal capitalist policies that do nothing but enrich the rich and impoverish the poor i recall you know obama's hope and change you know uh uh campaigns uh etc um i i look and see the news media discussing how joe biden is the most progressive president in history you know or whatever whatever they're touting these days it's a continuation of the very founding principles of the nation which are empty rhetoric to protect wealth and property at the expense of those who have neither that's going to do it for me everybody go ahead and get out there and seize the means of production my little anarchist friends you