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DiogenesLamp: "Makes them sound kinda stupid, doesn't it?
Here's another theory.
Maybe when they wrote that they intended that it apply to themselves, and they didn't give a thought to the idea that it might apply to the slaves? (Except for Jefferson, who made it clear this was his intent all along.)
Their intent was to justify their own separation from England, they had no intention on starting a discussion about slavery with the Declaration of Independence."

Naw, sadly, DiogenesLamp is again twisting logic pretzel-like to avoid having to admit the perfectly well-known truth of this particular matter.
It's this: before the early 1800s, nearly every American politician professed opposition to slavery, at least in theory and in the long term.

This includes every Founding Father from Virginia north, and even among Founders from South Carolina and Georgia, we can still find expressions of opposition to slavery in principle.
Further, in several states during the Revolutionary War period, including North Carolina and Maryland, freed-black property owners were permitted to vote.
So, the issue of freedom for African Americans was neither alien nor necessarily opposed by any of our Founders.

That's why our Founders had no particular problems with Thomas Jefferson's Declaration words of:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

Of course, none of this fits the pro-Confederate narrative DiogenesLamp is here to sell us, but is true nonetheless.

I think this quote from Virginia's Patrick Henry pretty well expresses the views of every other Founding Father regarding slavery:

"I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.
Everything we do is to improve it, if it happens in our day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence of slavery."

Naw, sadly, DiogenesLamp is again twisting logic pretzel-like to avoid having to admit the perfectly well-known truth of this particular matter. It's this: before the early 1800s, nearly every American politician professed opposition to slavery, at least in theory and in the long term.

Even if that is true, it has absolutely nothing to do with declaring Independence from England.

Only a fool tries to send mixed messages, and the founders were not fools.

Their intent, and their only intent was to declare Independence, not to get involved in a discussion on the morality of slavery.

Those who claim otherwise are either ignorant or deliberately dishonest.