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Explain Why The Founders Did Not Abolish Slavery

1031 Words5 Pages

The founders still allowed slavery to happen during the American Revolution.The founders were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton. They had a variety of personal beliefs regarding different political and social problems during the Revolution. The founders believed in deism which started to develop during the Enlightenment, and the founders became influenced by deism since it changed their mindsets on different issues. In addition, they believed that everyone was created equal and deserved the natural rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, the founders didn’t abolish slavery because they believed the nation was more important than slavery, …show more content…

The founders would have to do that by having the support of the Southern delegates. They saw that slavery disputed Republican morals, so they favored the Atlantic slave trade to cease. However, Southern delegates didn’t want the Atlantic slave trade to end because they wanted to increase their representation and population in the South. They also didn’t want the Atlantic slave trade to end because the Atlantic slave trade was the foundation of their economy, and they profited off of the Atlantic slave trade. So, they declared that if the importation of African enslaved people did not continue, the two states, South Carolina and Georgia, would not join the Union. The founders wanted the two states to join the Union to create a more vigorous government; because the founders wanted to keep the support of the Southern delegates, they allowed the Atlantic slave trade to keep operating by allowing no law to ban the Atlantic slave trade until 1808. Therefore, the founders didn’t abolish slavery because they thought that if they took action to eliminate slavery, the Southern delegates wouldn’t allow South Carolina and Georgia to join the Union, which would have been an unfavorable outcome for the nation. They didn’t want to risk that because the Southern delegates wouldn’t agree to the Constitution, the founders created and wouldn’t let the states join the …show more content…

Some founders, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton were against slavery and didn’t enslave people but didn’t know how to end slavery directly. Many founders, such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and James Madison, favored slavery since they enslaved people. Even though they believed everyone deserved the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they continued to be enslavers. The founders believed that slavery was a horrible thing that was happening, but they still didn’t try to take action to abolish it since slavery benefited the country economically. In addition, the founders also believed that slavery would die out on its own because of deism spreading around the nation. Deism is a philosophical way of thinking and using reasoning when it comes to natural laws to define right from wrong to solve any problem. The founders thought that all political and social problems would be solved through the influence of deism which is why they didn’t take action to get rid of slavery. Therefore, the founders had different viewpoints on slavery, which caused them not to want to take action to abolish

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