Unfortunately, no. The very men who wrote the Declaration of Independence declaring that the 13 American Colonies were independent from England, were slave owners. They used forced labor and servitude to enrich themselves. They bought and sold human beings and sold their children. They classified those humans as personal property. In the Declaration they wrote:
- We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
It is difficult for many Americans to reconcile that lofty statement with owning slaves who were most definitely not free and were definitely not viewed as being created equal. Nor did they enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. America was truly the land of the free only for a certain segment of its population. The slaves were not free.