The American Revolution saw the birth of a nation dedicated to equality in opportunity, government by popular consent and individual rights. How true is this?

A great misunderstanding is the difference between equality and equal opportunity, and how they both relate to the results of America’s Revolution. By no means was there social equality prevalent in the new America; Slaves and women were deprived of the newly found rights, as well as Indians who weren’t even considered men to begin with. The right to vote was cast only upon male owners of property, therefore excluding more than half the white population upon the already omitted slave population; regardless of whether or not they had been granted freedom. In contrast, equal opportunity certainly prevailed in the new society. In this age each man wanted to be free to seek a better life, he wanted to have an equal chance to rise on the ladder of well-being and denying the right to vote surely in no way hindered this. The conception of meritocracy and subsequent obliteration of deference at this time was far radical but did a world of good for the provision of equality in opportunities. A growth in colleges and public education, and the boom in nationalistic art highlight the expanding range of educated and their increasing abilities to contribute in society.

The restricted right to vote however, poses questions over whether the new American government was truly in place by popular consent. For popular sovereignty to be proper in this sense, it has, along with the ability to be changed if unjust, the basic requirement of the greater people to give permission to be ruled. However, statistically this can’t be accurate, due to the lack of diversity in the voting populace. The Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist debate of this time is an issue of great importance in the making of the Constitution. Federalists were prominent businessmen who fought in the Revolution and stood for a fiscally sound and strong nationalistic government. In comparison, Anti-Federalists were mainly farmers and workers of which also fought in the Revolution, but were strongly opposed to a nationalistic government and to the Constitution (until the Bill of Rights amendment was added). These opposing views, along with economic difficulties made it hard to create a fair government, but the Founders nonetheless established written constitutions, founded on “the consent of the governed”, and containing various institutional checks on the power of government designed to prevent it from being abused. Eventually, Americans as a whole seemed convinced that their diverse views were fairly represented in government and that their rights were adequately protected, as George Washington’s first administration and the statesmen of the First Congress strengthened popular acceptance of the new Constitution.

The Revolution brought about many social changes for America, and for the first time in the history of the world established a government founded on recognition of inherent natural and unalienable rights of the individual. They brought about a most radical awareness of equal opportunity among all and instituted a government “deriving its powers from the consent of the governed.”