The truth is, when our American founders said "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," this concept was NOT "self-evident" to any one throughout human history until that point. While the ideal was not invented by our founders, it was the first time that such an idea was laid out to form the basis for a national government -- and was especially notable for its time.

Slavery, servitude, and oppression was normal when the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence. It was even mostly normal in the colonies! Indeed, the founders had a difficult time even living up to their own concept of freedom. But their document set the base line that set the United States on a path to fulfill that freedom.

Until those words were sent around the world telling old Europe that Americans weren't having any of their kings and their royal prerogatives, no one anywhere assumed that a common citizen had any rights control their own lives.

So, to say that the founders can be dismissed because they were all rich racists is ignorant of the facts.