Specifically where does it ‘enshrine slavery’ and ‘protect white people’?
We need to stop accepting these peoples’ bullsh*t statements and start forcing them to point out exactly where it says any of that.
Wholeheartedly agree!
It’s called the “3/5th’s Compromise” and yes, it was part of the US Constitution until strict by amendment immediately following the Civil War. Here’s a link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-fifths_Compromise?wprov=sfti1
The liberal/left complaint about the Declaration of Independence is a old and very well known one: hypocrisy:
“ 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.“
The hypocrisy resides in the phrase “all men are created equal” since quite a number of the delegates to the 1776 Convention were slave owners. Despite being one himself, Thomas Jefferson’s initial draft of the Declaration is reported to have contained harsh criticism of slavery. It was toned down after his advisors informed him that such a radical view would never survive the review process.
Unmentioned is the hypocrisy of disenfranchising women and the use of means testing to restrict voting only to those white men of substance and property. Here you have prima fascia evidence for racism, misogyny, and classism; how typically upper class 18th Century of them!
So what! Curing the existing social ills of a very unequal society was not the Declaration’s purpose:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.“ Etc.
One more item on slavery in the Constitution. In addition to the 3/5ths compromise, there was another caveat concerning slavery inserted in Article 1, Section 9. This clause seems to anticipate the end of the importation of slaves in 1808:
“Section. 9.
The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.”
Such a law prohibiting the importation of slaves was, in fact, passed by Congress in 1807 with an effective date of 1 January 1808. It was signed by President Thomas Jefferson:
In 1807, the British Government passed the Slavery Act and began patrolling the coast of Africa to interdict slave ships. Although not entirely successful, the significant efforts of the Royal Navy and United States Navy to interdict slave ships are discussed here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Slave_Trade_Patrol?wprov=sfti1