Chapter 16 Documents

     The first primary source was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. For one, I immediately found myself comparing it to the Constitution of the United States. The first specific right helped solidify my urge to compare the two since it states: Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. As I read through the document, I did not come across anything that granted any shape or form of power to women. In every specific right that they mention, the one I mentioned above as my example, they specifically, whether intentional or not, use the word "man". They never even mention women when you read through the document. Moving forward, the document covers essentially the same rights as the Constitution.

     The second document goes on the attack from the start. I think the fact that it mentions that the"hatred we feel for the Peninsula is greater than the sea separating us from it" is powerful in itself. It shows how desperate people were to gain their independence from the countries that had originally colonized the Americas. It goes on to mention that the European nations, in this case Spain, are the ones responsible for all the suffering that people are having to go through in the Americas and that that's the reason why America fights with such "defiance". I find this part particularly interesting because it really portrayed the extreme measures people were willing to go through. This was literally a slap to the face to all of Europe saying, we don't want you running our lives. We are far away from you. We want to rule ourselves.

     The third document is entitled "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" I immediately thought that there was a definite purpose behind this document. The document could not have put it in better words. "a day that reveals to him...the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim." There was a bit of hypocrisy behind that holiday. The people of light skin color were celebrating freedom and the beauty behind it, yet they were guilty of owning slaves themselves and stripping from them the rights that they themselves had worked so hard to achieve. It was by no means fair at all. If anything it added insult to injury to the African slaves. 

     The fourth document finally brings up the women who were not allowed their basic rights. Elizabeth Stanton makes really good points such as the fact that the "responsibilities of life rest[s] equally on man and woman". She also uses very good evidence such as being a free human being and being able to live their lives just as freely as men do.