Pro Slavery In America

Slavery in America can be dated back to 1619, two centuries before the time of the Founding Fathers, when the first African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia. Though it is impossible to give precise figures, “some historians have estimated that six to seven million slaves were imported to the New World by the 18th century” (“Slavery in America”). The bulk of slaves imported into the Americas were commissioned as a cheaper and more accessible labor substitute for European indentured servants. Slavery was thus not a moral evil created by the Founding Fathers. The American Revolution did, nonetheless, mark the initial turning point in the national attitude on the issue of slavery. The Founding Fathers including Thomas Jefferson, Alexander

This omitted passage, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, critiqued King George III’s involvement in the slave trade. The propositioned anti-slavery abuse read, “He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither” (Jefferson 397). The crafters of the Declaration were divided on the topic of slavery, although not because of its untainted morality. Slavery’s economic substance was the controversy, as they realized that the manor system could not survive without a cheap source of labor. Jefferson himself owned over one hundred slaves, but spoke out against the enslavement of African-Americans. The duplicitous nature of Thomas Jefferson mimicked the attitude of the colonists during the Revolutionary War period. While many saw that slavery disturbed the human rights that they were rebelling for, the Americas could not be prosperous without it, which is why they chose to omit the passage. The Continental Congress could not outlaw slavery due to its substantial economic bearing. Abolishing slavery in the Declaration of Independence would subordinate the larger goal of securing the harmony and independence of the United States, as it would alienate pro-slavery colonies that were economically dependent on free labor. Without the collective support of all of the colonists, the colonies would have no chance in winning the War for Independence. It is for these motives that the Declaration of Independence failed to eradicate slavery, not because of pro-slavery aims. If the Declaration of Independence had included Jefferson's condemnation of slavery,