Jefferson’s words have taken on a broader meaning over the years.

 

“All men 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--- 

When Jefferson wrote this he was thinking of contemporary England, which supported a heredity nobility.  Birth into a noble British family, duke, earl, marquis, knight, granted all sorts of privileges denied to commoners. 

   In 1776, in America, Jefferson was saying that there would be no American nobility; every American would have the same rights at law, the same advantages in seeking government jobs and military commissions as everyone else. 

   Move forward in time to 1865, with the Civil War won by the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation made to stick by the Civil War victory, and “All Men are created equal” was expanded to include blacks.      

   Move forward in time again to 1920, when woman’s suffrage was legalized by Constitutional amendment, and “All Men” is restored to it’s meaning of “all mankind both men AND women”, which it bore in Jefferson’s time. 

   Writing about this in 2021 it is clear to me that the meaning of “All Men are created equal” is much broader today, then when Jefferson wrote it.  This broadening is all to the good.