Essay On The Declaration Of Independence

After years and years of tyrannous oppression from the Mother country, the American colonies were ready to be rid of the British monarchy, so much so that in 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. But the Declaration was not perfect, even after several revisions and rewrites. One major imperfection was its call for equal rights for all men when Africans were still being used as slaves, and it did not state that that would change once the Americans were free from British reign. This one imperfection would cause conflict between the states and their citizens for years. While this issue should have been dealt with and would have best been dealt with in the Declaration of Independence, the southern states would

All 13 colonies agreed that they no longer wanted to be ruled by Britain, but they disagreed on the slavery issue, which was included in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence. The southern states would not sign if anything against slavery was included, therefore, hoping that slavery would be dealt with later, all mention against slavery was removed. But they would be free from excessive taxation without representation and distant rulers with their own agendas. The colonies needed to be free from Britain, why should they let a small disagreement like slavery get in the way of their freedom?

African chattel slavery already had a large presence in America at the time of the Declaration of Independence. For years, Britain and other countries had gone to Africa, abducted the natives, and shipped them to the states to be sold as slaves. This, of course, is morally and ethically wrong, which is why the Declaration writers included it in the Declaration. They did so, in hopes that they could end slavery in the states. Ending slavery would mean freedom for an enormous number of African slaves. But would including it in the Declaration actually abolish it in the