Ah,but is it? If the word "property" can be defined as a physical item, or items, with a verifiable market value that can be legally bought,sold, acquired, held in trust, or inherited then comes the question --- Are human beings property?
If so, then the original wording of the Declaration of Independence reading ". . . life, liberty and property" could very well have been interpreted as approving the "peculiar institution" of Slavery.
And, as we all know, Jefferson -- among many members of the Constitutional Convention -- was a slaveholder; albeit many were not, and some among them were firm abolitionists.
and we also know that Jefferson was among those who disapproved of the slave trade -thus the memorialized excerpt from his Notes on the State of Virginia Query XVIII
"and can th eLiberties of a naiton be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis,a conviciton in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?Indeed I tremble for my Country when I reflect that God is Just :that his justice cannot sleep forever... The spirit of the Master is abating,that of th eslave is rising.. . . "
Sadly I find racism more a problem of the North Than I ever saw it in the South.Tough your point on "property" is documented as it was defined respecting the slave trade.But it was a definition imported from the Brits.
Good point, yankeedame.