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To: x
Very little? States abolished slavery or put themselves on the road to abolition.

Not in 1776 they didn't. Massachusetts started their Judicial activism after 1780, but this wasn't the same as the people voting to get rid of it.

Trying to make 1776 and the Declaration of Independence about slavery is dishonest.

80 posted on 02/13/2024 8:39:22 AM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp; fortheDeclaration

You never heard of the “Spirit of 1776”? People hadn’t heard phrases like “all Men are created equal ... endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, ... among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” When they did, they were inspired to act upon that ideal.

Nobody is saying that the founders freed the slaves with the Declaration or that they intended to do so at the time. Rather, the Delaration set a standard that they tried to live up to later.

People argue about interpreting the Constitution because one argument can impose very different real world conditions. We’re not talking about that here. We’re talking about the inspiration that people got from the document.


81 posted on 02/13/2024 9:08:48 AM PST by x
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To: DiogenesLamp; BroJoeK; jmacusa; x; PeterPrinciple
"Not in 1776 they didn't."

Yes, they did. Prior to 1776 as well. It was internationally known.

New audiobook release: Reflections on the rise, progress, and probable consequences of the present contentions with the colonies

In answer to this objection, it may be asked, where did this infamous commerce originate? Where is it still carried on with all the eagerness which avarice can inspire? Where, but in England? By what means can it be abolished? Surely by that power alone, which America acknowledges the parent state, may justly exercise over all her dominions, viz. the power of regulating their trade. The legislatures of some of the colonies have done what they could to put a stop to the importation of African slaves, by loading it with the heaviest duties: And others have attempted the total abolition of it, by acts of assembly which their governors refused to pass.

You can read it, or you can listen to it. But its time for you to drop the act. No more theatrics. Give the Founding Fathers what the Founding Fathers are due.

82 posted on 02/13/2024 9:12:38 AM PST by ProgressingAmerica (The historians must be stopped. They're destroying everything.)
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