Did I hear that wrong, or did he take a major slap at slavery?
He absolutely did. From the begining they were trying to contain slavery.
Yes, Jefferson pointed out that slavery came from the Empire and that the King was vetoing abolitionist laws which were attempted to be passed in various colonial Houses of Burgesses and Colonial Congresses, etc.
America would be very different today had abolitionism been allowed to take place prior to Independence Day.
Even though those laws were vetoed, it is still a powerful push back against Critical Race Theory.
“Did I hear that wrong, or did he take a major slap at slavery?”
He took a major slap at the King of England.
Jefferson’s philippic against slavery was not included in the Declaration of Independence for reasons explained in his contemporaneous notes.
If that language had been left in, support for independence would have collapsed.