Why did they put that into the Constitution of the State of Virginia?

PGA Weblog ^ | 8/31/25

[ProgressingAmerica]

It probably only would have been 1 or 2 or 3 colonies that abolished slavery before the revolution since abolitionism as a movement was less than a decade old at that point. There simply was not enough time for effectiveness and changing people’s minds.

[ProgressingAmerica]

Yes, the Empire fought terribly hard to obtain the asiento. A monopoly on slave trading.

[ProgressingAmerica]

Thank you.

https://gunstonhall.org/learn/george-mason/mason-and-the-constitution/

“Virginia was one of the first states to write its own constitution and George Mason was the primary author of this historic document. In the Virginia Constitution”

Thank you that sorts out that item.

So George Mason, just like Thomas Jefferson, was also sufficiently aggravated that the crown vetoed their laws for obstructing slavery.

It is atrocious that modern historians pay no attention to this super important historical detail.

[woodpusher]

There are two interesting items in the 1776 Constitution for the State of Virginia. The first one is in the second paragraph and it reads as follows:

Whereas George the Third, King of Great Britain and Ireland, and Elector of Hanover, heretofore intrusted with the exercise of the Kingly Office in this Government, hath endeavoured to pervert the same into a detestable and insupportable Tyranny; by putting his negative on laws the most wholesome and necessary for the publick good;

That is in the Preamble, not the text of the Constitution as adopted. The Virginia Constitution of 1776 was adopted June 29, 1776, prior to the Declaration of Independence. Virginia declared its independence prior to the DoI.

[Nailbiter]

Later

[ProgressingAmerica]

Ok. Why did they put that into the preamble of the Constitution of the State of Virginia?

It must have meant something to them.