Revisiting our Roots

By Jaclyn Angela Rodriguez

Publication 5 March 2025

The year is 1776. We have just become an official country, fast forward almost 250 years, two wars, many conflicts, and 45 presidents. America has certainly changed. Yet we still hold to our founding documents rewriting by men many, many years ago. Haven’t things changed?

As an American History Scholar. I can only hope things have changed!

So what are these documents to start with, that are our framework and what is the story behind them? The most famous of them is the Declaration of Independence! This document was penned on the outskirts of Philadelphia, PA  by Thomas Jefferson, our eventually 3rd President. We can think of it as a break up letter to the King of England. It starts with “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.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” (Thomas Jefferson),This statement is probably one of the most famous statements but it brings about the thought of what is Jefferson standing for when he says “We The People”. Jefferson famously a slave owner was not talking about his slaves, whom he held hostage, abused, raped. How could a man who does this be talking about the rights of others. But as historians we are trained to learn how to study people in their milieu or time period. Jefferson was one of many slave owning founding fathers, it was a common practice (not that it was just). It was accepted as a form of economic growth. He also mentions “Nor have We been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends” (Thomas Jefferson). This part is the break letter part where after listing multiple complaints he tells the King goodbye and that they deserve their freedom. 

The next famous of these documents is the Federalist Papers, as an historian I can explain this is a compiled guide sheet to the Bill of Rights. It was formed to explain the rapid changes, the work was supposed to divide equality between John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton(Publis, named used) . But Hamilton ended up taking up much of it. Hamilton wanted citizens to be educated, he wanted to defend what the leaders were doing as well. It defended up and coming newly independent colonies. Hamilton also takes the chance to talk about fairness, where a person cannot be his own judge, juror and executioner. Meaning we need to check and balance ourselves, we need people to check in and balance the systems, no one person can do it all. 

The last of the big documents is the Bill of Rights, the best way to describe this is a set of rules. It is able to be edited still and is constantly referred to. It gives us the rights we are born with or earn as American Citizens. The right to free speech, peaceful protest, the right to own arms, the right to vote, the right to consume alcohol which was once abolished. 

So what do all these documents mean to us today?

They are almost 250 years old, written by men, at a time when women and non white citizens had no say.  But rest assured they are still valuable. First they give us the freedom of a country. We are not housing foreign soldiers, and paying taxes to a foreign country. They give you the freedom to speak (or tweet!) There is no silence no matter our views. You can own a gun (while this one is tricky at this time you can). You have the right to have property. The Bill of Rights can still be revised included recently the respect for marriage act, protecting gay marriage rights with precedent. It gives us the lay out of the government. It is truly why we exist.

But they were written by men who had slaves?

Yes, it is true many founders owed human beings. While this was unacceptable, it was a normalized part of the economy. While we cannot change this, I find it amazing to see how much our country has changed and how we grew from there.

But women are not included?

False, women won the right to vote and gained an amendment to the Bill of Rights.

But I am not a US citizen?

These rules apply to people both born and naturalized to a citizen. You can gain all these rights by passing a test that focuses heavily on the above documents!

To think even deeper….

Could slavery have been abolished in the original founding documents? 

Yes there was an attempt to do this but some colonies refused and in order to pass the documents to free the country they ended up taking off the slavery part.

To bring us back to 2024 after a tumultuous election season these documents pose the following questions that each and every person if left to answer for themselves!.

 Should the people be in charge of their own government? And to what extent?

The Declaration of Independence begins with “We the people” meaning that we are the ones to change our government. There are regular elections to do so preventing gain a lifetime tenure in control. 

 Should there be any limits on what the government can and cannot do?

I believe there should be limits but sometimes these lines blur. 

 Are good intentions more important than written laws? (Are words louder than actions?)

Should government powers check and balance each other?

Our three branches of government were set up in that way so that there is no exclusive power in one person’s hands and a variety of people get a chance to chime in for balance.

 Should the president have absolute power? (Does he or she currently have that power?)

Are there other often overlooked concerns from these documents?

The documents are overlooked by young people the most I have seen. As younger generation are less and less interested it seems they do not know the documents. History classes brush by them in a quick effort to teach. I also find people who weaponize these documents to fit their own needs, not the needs of those around them and cause the documents to be falsified. 

What is the purpose of the Bill of Rights and why does it matter today?

The Bill of Rights is as important today as it was the day it was published. Today they stand in as our rights and rules as citizens. They give us clear rules as to what we are granted and we can call them any time to defend us.

Are there rights, responsibilities or obligations and freedoms that are overlooked or forgotten in today’s society?

One of the biggest rights as a scholar I have overlooked is the right to free speech. Citizens of any age, race, sexuality and religion have the right to free and protected speech, this is forgotten as some people believe they are silent or choose silence as a form of protection. 

Classism in these documents

Classism in the documents comes around when we look into the time period of when the documents came out and who made them. It is no secret the time period was not favorable to women, minorities and anyone not male, white or a landowner. So sometimes you wonder if these documents could hold true due to those times. As I wrote this article I chose the name “revisiting” because I felt it is a set of documents that need to be revisited, revised, and renewed. We need to be able to personalize these documents to our rapidly changing times, but to do so we must understand them first. And then understand what we need, and maybe we can meet in the middle. Maybe we can add a new section or amendment and be able to leave our touch on this country. 

I am excited to look forward to our next anniversary! Happy 250th Birthday America!!