Is it self-evident that we are born with unalienable rights?

In the spirit of the July 4 holiday, I thought it would be of interest to examine the assumptions stated in the Declaration of Independence, much of it derived from the philosophy of John Locke.

The colonists certainly had legitimate gripes against the British government, but I do not believe that derived from any rights that we are naturally born with. These rights are social constructs, deriving in part from a moral sense that we are born with. It took a long time for the idea of democracy to take hold, so I would say that these rights are less than self-evident. Britain at the time, with its parliamentary government, was further along the path to democracy than any other nations. What was particularly annoying to the colonists was the discrepancy between the rights that British citizens had and the treatment that they were subject to, especially since at the time most colonists were either British immigrants or descendants of them.