# data[].attributes.body
1. Abigail Adams spent much time alone waiting for her husband to return from his many trips to Philadelphia.  During these absences the two would exchange letters.  In one letter Abigail shares her thoughts about the work John Adams does with the Declaration of Independence.

“I long to hear that you have declared an independency -- and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”

# data[].attributes.body
1. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a freed African American leader of the abolitionist movement, which was the movement to end slavery.  On July 4, 1852, he was asked to give a speech honoring the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  The following quote is from his speech, entitled “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” or “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.”

“Fellow citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today?  What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?  Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?”

# data[].attributes.body
1. Corn Tassel was a Cherokee chief between 1783 and 1788.  He argued against white settlers from moving into Cherokee lands as well as the attempts to “civilize” the Cherokees.  Below is a quote from a speech where he argues against the laws of the United States from applying to Cherokee lands.

“Were we to inquire by what law  or authority you set up a claim, I answer none!  Your laws extend not into our country, nor ever did.  You talk of the law or nature and the law of nations, and they are both against you ….The great God of Nature has placed us in different situations.  It is true that he has endowed you with many superior advantages, but he has not created us to be your slaves.  We are a separate people!”

# data[].attributes.body
1. Benjamin Franklin was an abolitionist (someone against slavery) in his later years in life.  He was the President of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.  In 1790, he sent a  petition to Congress asking for the abolition of slavery and an end to the slave trade.  Below is a quote from this petition.

“From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally the Portion, & is still the Birthright of all men, & influenced by their strong ties of Humanity & the Principles of their Institution, your memorialists conceive themselves bound to use all justifiable endeavors to loosen the bands of Slavery and promote a general Enjoyment of the blessing of Freedom.

# data[].attributes.body
The Declaration of Sentiment is a document primarily written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, which was based off of the Declaration of independence.  It was signed in 1848 by roughly 100 people at the Seneca Falls Convention, which was the first women’s rights convention in the U. S.  In this document, women called for more rights and equal protection in the United States.  The following is a quote from this document from the paragraph before listing grievance against men.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness . . . The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.  To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. . . He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns”

# data[].attributes.body
When Jefferson originally drafted the Declaration of Independence, he included a grievance (complaint) about slavery.  He argued against slavery and that King George III was responsible for the slave trade.  When he presented this draft of the Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress, many slaveholding delegates disagreed and it was removed from the final draft.  The following quote comes from the deleted portion of the rough draft from the Declaration of Independence of 1776.

“He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation hither.  The piratical warfare, the opprobrium (harsh criticism) of infidel powers is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain."

# data[].attributes.body
During the Revolutionary War period, many enslaved people signed petitions using language from the Declaration of Independence to argue for freedom.  This quote below comes from a petition submitted to the Massachusetts legislature in 1777 entitled “A Natural and Unalienable Right to Freedom.”

“They [the petitioners] therefore humbly beseech your honor to give this petition its due weight and consideration and cause on act of the legislature to be passed whereby they may be restored to the enjoyments of that which is the natural right of all men, and their children who were born in this land of liberty may not be held as slaves after they arrive as the age of 21 years.”

# data[].attributes.body
Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) was the President to the Farm Workers Union.  A union is an organized group of workers trying to protect rights from employers.  The union fought for better working conditions for farm workers, specifically Mexican American farm workers.  The following quote comes from El Plan de Delano (1966), which was read to striking farm workers as they marched to Sacramento, California.

“The farm worker has been abandoned to his own fate -- without representation, without power -- subject to mercy and caprice (change of moods) of the rancher.  We are tired of words, of betrayals, of indifference.  To the politicians we say that the years are gone when the farm worker said nothing and did nothing to help himself. From this movement shall spring leaders who shall understand us, lead us, be faithful to us, and we shall elect them to represent us.  WE SHALL BE HEARD.”

# data[].attributes.body
Martin Luther King Jr. “ I Have a Dream “  Speech on August 28, 1963.  The 1960s is a period known for the Civil Rights Movement, where people fought for equality for African Americans.  Martin Luther King, Jr,  gave this speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. during the March on Washington, where roughly 250,000 people congregated at the capital.  The following quote is from his speech.

“In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check.  When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.  Ths note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights “ of Life, LIberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.  Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’.”