Slavery Exposed In Thomas Jefferson's Declaration Of Independence

On June 7, 1776 the Second Continental Congress made the official decision to separate themselves from Britain. Thomas Jefferson was given one month to put together a document that declared the colonies’ desire for independence and explained the rationale behind such a desire. As the document was formed, it became clear that the assertion that all men were born equal would be central in the forming of this new country, though the rights of enslaved people were notably excluded. Within the finalized version of the Declaration of Independence there is no mention of slavery itself nor the abolition, or eradication, of it; however, within previous drafts of the declaration, Jefferson devotes a paragraph to the subject of slavery, as well as

The proclamation promised freedom to any enslaved person or indentured servant who ran away from their patriot masters and joined him and his loyalist army to resist the growing patriot forces. Thousands of enslaved people did join his crusade, which incited outrage among white slave owners, including Thomas Jefferson, an owner of enslaved people himself. In an early draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote (hypocritically) about his distaste for the institution of slavery incited by King George, as well as the crown’s subsequent offer of freedom, writing, “he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms, among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he had deprived them by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urged them to commit against the lives of another” (Library of Congress, 5). Jefferson wrote in opposition to the institution of slavery, but interestingly, found it seemingly more problematic that the crown was now offering the freedom that it had taken away, in return for violence against the colonists, another group of people he thought Britain had continually