Liberty in America's Founding Moment: Doubts About Natural Rights in Jefferson's Declaration of Independence

The current and perennial debate over America's vision of liberty often turns on the question of how the founders of this country understood individual rights in the founding moment. Central to that discussion is the understanding of liberty in the Declaration of Independence, the document written at the very moment the colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. The Declaration, and the views of the Declaration's author, Thomas Jefferson, are thus key to this question of how the founders envisioned liberty in America. This book offers a fresh perspective on that question. Arguing that Jefferson fundamentally disagreed with his colleagues and had misgivings about natural rights as a foundation of American liberty, this book casts doubt on the commonplace understanding of liberty in America's founding moment. In doing so, this book probes the inherent ambiguity of history and the precariousness of trying to ground present day ideas about liberty in the founders convictions.