The basis for the independence is individual human rights. “All men are created equal” Why are you spinning so hard to deny what is right there in the document? Cleanse yourself and stop the nonsense.
In 1776, the big concept floating around the intelligentsia was "natural law." There were many learned men of the times writing on and opining on "natural law", and then you had some like Rousseau who wrote of the "rights of man" while sending his very own children to an orphanage.
The Founder's sources for insight into natural law were Grotius, Puffendorf, Wolf, Vattel, Rutherford, Burlamaqui and so forth.
This business of seeing slaves as peers was not at all on their radar at this time. (Other than Jefferson, possibly because of Sally Hemmings who is said to look exactly like Jefferson's wife, and was indeed her half-sister.)
Why are you spinning so hard to deny what is right there in the document?
I'm not spinning, i'm trying to stop *YOUR* spinning. The document wasn't written for the purpose of articulating that slaves are equal. It just wasn't. You could remove that verbiage from it completely, and it would change nothing regarding what the document was intended to accomplish.
Those five words comprise 0.26821% of the total words in the document, yet people think they contain 100% of it's meaning and purpose. This is irrational.
People have been sold the claim that the Declaration was about freedom for all men, but this is very inaccurate. It should have been about freedom for all, but i'm not going to lie to myself or lie to others by claiming it was.