Are All Men Created Equal Essays

Are All Men Created Equal Essays Are All Men Created Equal Essay Are All Men Created Equal Essay Vanity Finley HST 230 Writing Assignment 2 The United States constitution proclaimed that all men are created equal. However, it would be more accurate to say that all white men are created equal. The goals of liberty, freedom, self-government and democratic rule seem to only affect the white man. African Americans can be used as one example of a minority group that demonstrates these goals were not meant for everyone; just for the white majority. Whites treated all minority groups with a great deal of inequality, especially the African Americans. This group of people was by no means treated as equal to white men. The goals of liberty, freedom, and self government were never part of their lives. They had no freedom because they were property. They had a master/owner and they were expected to do exactly as they were told. Freedom and liberty refer to the idea of not being controlled by an external force. It is not possible to be free if someone owns you and makes you do as they say. The textbook makes a good argument about the inequality of African Americans through the three-fifths compromise. According to this clause, African Americans count as three-fifths of a vote. Slave owners could turn in three-fifths of their total slave population for representation and apportionment of taxes. This clearly demonstrates how superior whites thought themselves to be. Slaves were only a little over half the worth of a white manâ„ ¢s vote. As if only counting as three-fifths of a person wasnâ„ ¢t bad enough, this clause was only made to satisfy white slave owners. If it had not been beneficial to slave owners, then the clause would never had came into being. The ideas of self-government and democratic rule were fitting to whites but not blacks. These two ideas are based on the belief that the people of a society should make the rules and govern the society. If society were strictly white, then these two ideas were real and alive. The upper class white men did make the rules and they were the people governing the country. However, African Americans had no say so in laws or policy, and they never held office. It they have no say so or no representation then how can it be assumed that they were self-governing One of the more obvious ways in which minorities were not treated equal can be found in Article 4, Section 2 of the Constitution. This article demonstrates how all minorities, not just African Americans, were treated as lesser people. This section confined citizenship to white property holding males. As for immigrants, only free white persons could become citizens. The white men who wrote the constitution believed n the ideas and goals of liberty, freedom, self-government, and democratic rule. However, these ideas only pertained to themselves. All minorities were excluded from these ideas and goals because it would interfere with the white men achieve the same goals. The white men stayed in government and on top of the social chain by treating minorities unjustly. White men enjoyed all of these ideas and goals, but minorities were never treated anywhere near equal during the period from 1776-1850.

Use Common Sense for Commas

Use Common Sense for Commas Use Common Sense for Commas Use Common Sense for Commas By Mark Nichol Commas are such cute little things with curly tails that their strength is often overlooked. When used haphazardly, their power can be untapped or misused. Employed correctly, however, they do much to convey a sentence’s meaning. The rules may seem complex, but they are also commonsensical. Many writers believe that commas are necessary in the middle of a sentence only when they divide two independent clauses two parts of a sentence that could stand on their own as distinct statements. But commas also serve as comprehension aids: Note the difference between â€Å"Knights wore metal shoes and gloves called gauntlets† and â€Å"Knights wore metal shoes, and gloves called gauntlets.† The first version implies that both items were referred to as gauntlets, and the second version correctly distinguishes that only the second item was labeled as such. â€Å"Are they going to lock me up or shoot me?† looks like the writer is asking if one of these two outcomes will occur. â€Å"Are they going to lock me up, or shoot me?† correctly clarifies that the writer is asking which outcome will occur and that’s a big difference made clear by the mighty little comma. Traditionally, a comma was inserted after all introductory phrases, no matter how short: But the trend toward open punctuation and away from closed punctuation has relaxed this tradition. Unfortunately, though short introductory phrases may not look wrong in isolation, in text containing both short and long introductory phrases, when the latter cry out for a comma to give the reader a rest, inconsistency is awkward, so it’s best to always retain closed punctuation. Sometimes, misunderstandings may occur when you omit a comma, as when a reader reads, â€Å"When she returned Jim’s head was already lying back against the pillow† and thinks at first that Jim’s head is being handed back to him or its current owner. Comments actually or conjecturally directed toward readers or a third party are awkward without a comma following an imperative (a form of address that tells someone to do something). The warning statement â€Å"Move over RCA and Sony, computer firms are becoming TV makers† starts the reader off at a disadvantage; who, they may think, is steamrolling over the television manufacturers in question? A comma after â€Å"move over† solves that problem. Similarly, â€Å"Attention shoppers!† implies that attention is a commodity some store patrons are there to buy, and that the voice on the intercom is acoustically accosting just that class of consumer; â€Å"Attention, shoppers!† meanwhile, asks for something, then identifies who is being asked. These rules may seem complicated. But there’s a simple test that usually works: When in doubt about whether or where to place a comma, read aloud the sentence in question, and visualize the comma as a hook that briefly makes the sentence run in place. If you hesitate or pause, insert the hook in the sentence to mark that place. If you don’t, don’t. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Inquire vs Enquire35 Genres and Other Varieties of FictionUsing "May" in a Question