Apparently, the Founding Fathers of the United States Did Not Consider Africans Humans

First Published: 3rd of September, 2020.

While studying American literature around the year 2000, something struck me: the founding fathers of the United States of America might not have considered Africans to be humans.

The United States’ Declaration of Independence, in my opinion, is one of America’s most beautiful pieces of literature. Drafted in 1766 during the Revolutionary war, the classic piece is enshrined in glory. I particularly liked the part which, at that time, seemed to encapsulate the essence of humanitarianism.

We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men were created equal, and were endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights: that among these are the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of justice.

Indeed, for this I loved America! Isn’t this why everyone flocks to its shores with the glorious Statue of Liberty where freedom beckons? Hold up. Did you say freedom? The Declaration of Independence was drafted in 1776 at a time when the founding fathers of America owned slaves! It wasn’t until 100 years later, in 1881, that the civil war was fought to free the slaves. The Civil War of America divided the United States into the North and South or the Union States versus the Confederate States.

It then dawned upon me that this beautiful “verse” encapsulated in the the US Declaration of Independence had a dark underpinning. If you are to say that the truth that “all men are created equal” is inevitable, then you are tacitly implying that you do not consider the Africans whom you simultaneously held as slaves to be in the category of “men.”

The US Declaration of Independence, in stating that all men were created equal at a time when slavery was widespread in the United States was silently implying that the Africans in America were not humans. Did the founding fathers of America consider the Africans subhumans or a lesser form of human? Were they not enough to fit into the category of “all men?” If so, on what grounds? And what was lacking?

As of September 2020, there has been increasing racial tensions in the United States. There is currently a Black Lives Matter Movement which runs under the theme that the African race, particular African males, are under threat by law enforcement officials. The slaying of a number of African African men during confrontation with the police has resulted in violent protests and unrest across the United States. Black Lives Matter slogans are everywhere.

While almost all African Americans are united in the fight for “Black Lives Matter,” the white race of America is divided almost 50/50. More than 100 years after the abolition of slavery in the United States, is the white race of America ready to sacrifice another 1 million of their own for the cause of African upliftment? If there is a civil war in America under the theme of Black Lives Matter, the death toll might be much higher. Thankfully, such a protest is unlikely to escalate into an all out war. Unlikely, but not impossible.

While teaching English at the St. Ignatius Secondary School in Guyana in the year 2016, I had a hard time explaining the meaning of the word “subhuman” to my students. Of course, we know that “sub” means “below.” Therefore subhuman means below human standards or, in zoology, classified just under humans. Often, the term is used in a derogatory manner to refer to someone who is below human standards morally or otherwise. When one of the students asked for an example of a subhuman, I had a hard time coming up with an answer. “We can say that serial killers are subhumans,” I responded, “because they are not on par with human level of morality.”

But even so, giving an example of a “subhuman” can be problematic because it pushes you to judge a category of people when you yourself may be at risk of being judged. A vegetarian, for example, might say that someone who slaughters animals or eats meat is subhuman because he or she does not have the high moral standard of someone who holds animal life sacred and therefore refrains from eating meat.

The founding fathers of the United States might have considered the Africans subhuman because they did not have the technology or the education that the white race had at the time, but today, many people are considering those slave owners subhuman for having the low moral standards of enslaving their fellow humans. The irony of it all!

I was inspired to write this article after seeing the following post on Facebook: