Created Equal: The Premises and Promises of the Declaration of Independence

On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain. Two days later, delegates in Philadelphia finalized a document designed to announce and explain that act to readers in America and Europe. The Declaration of Independence asserted the revolutionary right of a people to alter or abolish a government, grounding that principle in the "self-evident" claims that "all Men are created Equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" and "that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Over time, many readers have come to consider the radical philosophical premises in the Declaration as founding political promises of the United States. In doing so, they transformed an indictment of the British King and a manifesto of secession from the British Empire into an American charter of liberty, equality, and rights. But the Declaration's meaning has never been solitary. From the start, readers disagreed about what its authors intended. Since 1776, radically different interpretations of the Declaration's ideas have been put to different ends—from demands for the legal, political, and social equality of all persons, to claims for the rights of states to secede from the union, to calls for the revolutionary overthrow of the government. How did the Declaration's premises become its promises? Drawing on rare materials from the seventeenth century to the present, this exhibition invites you to explore the document's meanings in its own time, to consider contested interpretations across history, and to reflect on what the Declaration means today. Curator Eric Slauter, Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature; Associate faculty member, Divinity School; Founding Director of the Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture; The University of Chicago Visitors This exhibition is free and open to all. Visitors to the University of Chicago Library may obtain an entry pass by checking in at Regenstein Library's entry desk and presenting a current, government-issued photo ID, such as a driver's license, CityKey (https://www.chicityclerk.com/about-citykey/citykey-faq), state ID, or passport to confirm identity. Get more visitor information (https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/borrow/access-privileges/visitors/).Exhibition Gallery Hours (https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/libraries/libraries-hours/): Weekdays, 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.