Teaching American History Seminar- America at 250: The Legacy of the Declaration of Independence
Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. both argued that the proper foundation for civic education is the belief that America has a moral essence derived from the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and that America’s history and purpose—its past, present, and future—is the story of our struggle to live up to those principles. In this seminar, we will read three documents–the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and the “I Have a Dream” Speech”– that demonstrate that an American is not just a citizen or an abstract concept, but a certain kind of human being, a person whose mind and heart have been profoundly shaped by the principles contained in the Declaration, especially the truth of the proposition that all men are created equal.
That understanding of an American still resonates with teachers, students, and citizens today, 250 years after Thomas Jefferson first wrote the words that made America: “We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal.