Let the truth be told, Part II

Truth Be Told: Part II: Forgotten History—the Declaration of Independence Against the Pro-slavery King of England

By Ramblin’ Rose

In the continuation of the Crossroad interview of Tim Barton (Wallbuilders) by Joshua Philpp, the truth about the maligned Thomas Jefferson, as a reputed slave owner, was revealed.

After Jamestown, the other major colony was Plymouth. There the view of slavery was completely different. The Founding Fathers from the northern colonies were abolitionists. Those from South Carolina and Georgia championed slavery. In 1773 and 1774, four colonies passed the first anti-slavery laws that were vetoed by the King of England.

From the handwritten notes of Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence, the longest grievance among the 27 grievances against King George was against slavery. A hidden truth was that the colonists wanted to end slavery that was perpetuated by the King. Only the colonies of South Carolina and Georgia refused to support Jefferson’s grievance against slavery. It's also noteworthy that Jefferson wrote that all MEN (all caps) were created equal by God. It did not refer to only white men; his writings indicate that he intended that word to be inclusive of all persons created in God’s image without attention to skin tones.

By 1804, all northern colonies/states had passed anti-slavery laws. In1807, the USA was the first nation in the world to ban the slave trade.

Frederick Douglass, as many then and now, called the Constitution a racist document. When challenged to indicate what parts of the Constitution were racist, he had to admit that he had never read it. When he did, he had to concede that it was not racist at all.

Both Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. called Thomas Jefferson an abolitionist. Have those that still malign Jefferson as pro-slavery read his words in the Declaration of Independence? Have they read the Constitution? Do they understand the historical context of the colonies, the Revolutionary War, the restriction of the 3/5 clause to limit the census and thus the number of legislators from those states in Congress?

Prior to Jefferson’s drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the inclusion of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the phrase had been “life , liberty and property.” Property could be understood to include the ownership of slaves. Jefferson made a strategic change in the terms to focus on the American values.

It was George III, King of England, who continued the slave trade to the Americas…not the colonists.