[4CJ]

So all men are created equal, except for those who were created by God to be slaves to the others.

God placed his own children into slavery.

They were all perfectly clear that slavery was a contradiction of the principles of the Declaration, and a Very Bad Thing.

Agreed.

They just didn’t know how to get rid of it without disastrous consequences, so they played for time in hopes the situation would resolve itself.

Jefferson had submitted a bill to the Virginia Burgess to emancipate all slaves, which was defeated. The King continually negatived colonial laws, which explains why the framers explicitly rejected all attempts to grant the federal government that power. In 1769 Jefferson submitted a bill allowing manumission, a version eventually passed in 1782 which he signed as Governor. He also argued for the freedom of a slave in Howell v Netherland, stating 'under that law [the law of Nature/God's law] we are all born free'.

Their hope was that slavery would gradually become less profitable and critical to the South’s economy, as it had in the North.

I'll give you credit where credit is due, you understand that slavery existed due to economic issues, not that every American simply desired to own a slave.

Over the first decades of the 1800s southerners gradually developed the notion that slavery was a Good Thing, not unreasonably trying to find a justification for something they were so dependent on economically.

There were more abolition societies in the South. The notion that slavery was good was based on the prevailing sentiments of blacks - in their native lands - were barbarians, cannibals, practiced witchcraft etc, so their introduction to Christianity and European culture was seen as benevolent in comparison.

[Non-Sequitur]

In 1769 Jefferson submitted a bill allowing manumission, a version eventually passed in 1782 which he signed as Governor.

Jefferson served as governor from June 1, 1779 to June 3, 1781 so if he signed such a bill then it was illegal. You also failed to mention that the bill merely made it legal for slave owners to free their own slaves or that it was repealed in 1792 and that in 1806 a law was passed requiring freed slaves to leave the state or be sold back into slavery.

He also argued for the freedom of a slave in Howell v Netherland, stating 'under that law [the law of Nature/God's law] we are all born free'.

He also lost his aruguement.