Professor Chanin
English Composition 101
3/9/15
“Declaration of Sentiments” vs. “Declaration of Independence”
The United States prides itself as the land of the free; a nation where we have absolute rights, can strive for contentment, and are free from unfair oppression. Although America has rapidly embraced the thought of liberty, it has found that freedom may take part into the abstract culture as opposed to the actual culture. United States’ history has been defected by prejudicial persecution and endeavors for freedom. The country’s Founding Fathers preceded the practice of freedom when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, but even after America’s democratic proposition was dictated and written down, freedom was nonetheless not permitted to all of us. Women have encountered many obstacles in their aim for freedom. They were not battling for freedom from England; rather for freedom in their own country. When Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the “Declaration of Sentiments,” she applied the “Declaration of Independence” as a structure. Freedom was still and all freedom, but the intention of it was used for a motive distinct from that of the Founding Fathers. The historical frame of reference had altered and was accompanied by the idea of freedom. Stanton believes that Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence” is unfair to the American views of independence and inspires to make it fair. Elizabeth Cady Stanton imitates the technique and language of the “Declaration of Independence” to proclaim that men as well as women are proclaimed equal. By doing this, she obtains a feeling of empathy and begins associations that unify women and the rest of the American society. Thomas Jefferson wrote, “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal” (375). Stanton reworded Jefferson’s sentence to declare that all men including women are created equal. Whereas the “Declaration of Independence” profiles the “patient sufferance of these