And many Founders had already begun abolition by the time of the Constitution Convention in 1787, many more soon followed.Even Southerners like Thomas Jefferson did what they could to abolish slavery in the Northwest Territories and outlawed international imports of slaves.
So abolition was serious and many freedmen could also vote, thus providing "consent of the governed", as the Declaration said.
Which slave-owning Founder manumitted his own slaves?
Which of the Founders caused anti-slavery sentiment to be expressed in the Articles of Confederation?
If there was so much anti-slavery sentiment among northern and southern politicians, why did no Congress prohibit the slave trade in Washington, D.C. until the middle of the Civil War?
And yet virtually all expressed the wish to see slavery eventually abolished, and many took actions in that direction, notably Jefferson.
That makes our Founders at least as abolitionists as average 1860 Republican voters.
woodpusher: "Which of the Founders caused anti-slavery sentiment to be expressed in the Articles of Confederation?"
And yet while still under the old Articles, Jefferson proposed and Congress passed abolition in the Northwest Territories.
If you think about it, that makes Jefferson our single greatest abolitionist before Lincoln himself.
And Jefferson didn'tneed a war to make it happen.
woodpusher: "If there was so much anti-slavery sentiment among northern and southern politicians, why did no Congress prohibit the slave trade in Washington, D.C. until the middle of the Civil War?"
After Northern states abolished their own slavery, the next state up was Virginia, which tried in the 1830s but failed in abolition.
From that point on slavery became a non-stsrter for Southetners.
But remember, long before 1830 Jefferson did propose complete national compensated abolition, so he at least was serious about it.