“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Most Americans are familiar with these famous words at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence. However, far fewer people are familiar with the racist words later in the Declaration, labeling Native Americans “savages” and warning of “domestic insurrections” from enslaved individuals. These phrases laid bare the role of race in the founding of the United States. This episode of Justice Above All dives into history and probes how America’s promise of equality remains unfulfilled for so many today. The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence calls us to write a new chapter: a multi-racial democracy where power is shared, dignity is sacred, and thriving is the standard for everyone.
Hosted by Sandhya Kajeepeta, PhD
Senior Researcher and Statistician, Thurgood Marshall Institute
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Creator, The 1619 Project
Janai Nelson
President and Director-Counsel, Legal Defense Fund
Robert Parkinson, PhD
Professor of History, Binghamton University
“The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. . . . He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured 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.”
On August 20, 1619, a ship carrying more than twenty enslaved individuals from Africa arrived in Virginia, marking the beginning of American slavery. The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that reframes our nation’s history by centering the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black communities.
In Thirteen Clocks, episode guest Robert Parkinson “argues that patriot leaders used racial prejudices to persuade Americans to declare independence. Between the Revolutionary War’s start at Lexington and the Declaration, they broadcast any news they could find about Native Americans, enslaved Blacks, and Hessian mercenaries working with their British enemies. American independence thus owed less to the love of liberty than to the exploitation of colonial fears about race.”
Thirteen Clocks can be ordered from The University of North Carolina Press.
