This is a summary from an essay ‘9. What are two rights in the Declaration of Independence?’ from Jeff McQuillan's ‘Introduction to the United States’ course in ESLPOD.com.
What are three rights in the Declaration of Independence? They are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thomas Jefferson and the other men who wrote the Constitution believed that these are unalienable rights. These words have become synonymous with the American spirit.
In the U.S., the right to life is considered the most basic of all rights. It's exactly what it sounds like: the right to be alive. It's just because many of the earliest Americans had come from countries where governments didn't take this right seriously. There were sometimes executed casually in the countries.
The right to liberty is a person's right to make their own decisions.
The right to pursue happiness is the right to work hard to get it. Happiness could mean anything a person wants to have: a job, a family, or a safe place to live. The pursuit of happiness is exemplified by many Americans' rags-to-riches stories.
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