By David K. Shipler
In his draft of the
Declaration of Independence in 1776, Thomas Jefferson included this denunciation
of the King of England’s trade in human beings. It was deleted by the
Continental Congress, much to his chagrin. He nonetheless retained it in copies
that he sent to those with whom he corresponded, demonstrating that as a slave-owner
who detested slavery, he was as complex as the society he guided. On this and
every July 4, it is worth considering whether our history would have taken a different
course had the men of the Congress been enlightened enough to include it. As
the reporters of National Public Radio take turns reading the Declaration to
mark every Fourth, they would do well to add this condemnation, noting its
unfortunate demise.
By Thomas Jefferson
He
[King George III] has waged a cruel war against human nature itself, violating
it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant
people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in
another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation
thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great
Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold,
he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to
prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.
