I'm not sure why you bring this book forward. It supports my position.
An excerpt: “The third of Jefferson's grievances was even more troublesome. For years scholars have read it as an attack on the slave trade and on George III for not using his royal power to eliminate it. In fact the real force of this grievance is in its last sentence, which indicts the king for exciting the slaves to “rise in arms” against their American masters - a reference to Governor Dunmore’s proclamation of November 7, 1775, freeing Virginia slaves who joined the king's troops.”
This has been the point I've made while some of my good friends have said otherwise.
I would have copied and pasted pages 105, 106, and 107 in their entirety but the source blocks that (or I don't know how to copy and paste, a possibility.)
For the tally book, author Benson says that Gary Wills says that the term domestic insurrection refers to both slave and loyalist insurrections.
I don't think that is right for reasons I will explain - rather I'll ask Thomas Jefferson to explain - in a separate post.
Your bringing forward this additional documentation will, hopefully, help some people see the historical record in a way that I have not been able.
As expected, you only see what you thing supports your own case. What you quoted out of context makes clear that there were different grievances in this part of the original draft.
"The real force of this grievance" refers to one of three indictments, not all three. He's not saying that it was all about slavery and slave revolts.
Look at the bottom of page 106: "The phrase 'excited domestic insurrections amongst us' was meant to include both loyalists and slaves while making the Declaration less vulnerable to attack." QED.
It goes on to say that not only did the other side attack the contradiction of supporting slavery in the name of freedom, but also the very idea that loyal subjects of the king could be domestic insurrectionists. The Tories didn't think they could be insurrectionists, but they clearly understood that Jefferson was referring to them by that label.
Did I miss your post quoting Thomas Jefferson on how "domestic insurrections" refers strictly to slave revolts, not to loyalists battling patriot authorities?
I'd say, even if in theory "domestic insurrections" might refer to slave revolts, it did not on July 4, 1776 because at the time there were none.
So it could only accurately refer to loyalists battling patriot authorities.