Unlike Franklin, Thomas Jefferson actually acted on his convictions. Thomas Jefferson, along with many others living in America, was tired of British rule. So Thomas Jefferson composed “The Declaration of Independence,” declaring that America was its own independent nation. In “The Declaration of Independence,” Jefferson wrote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Jefferson 340). Jefferson's writings reflect the Enlightenment period when he specifically uses the phrases "that all men are created equal", from the aforementioned quote, because during the era of deist views it was believed that all men were created equal; however, during the 1700s this belief that all men were created equal did not apply to African Americans.