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First Formal Protest Against Slavery February 18, 1688 - First formal protest against slavery by organized white body in English America made by Germantown (Pa.) Quakers at monthly meeting. The historic "Germantown Protest" denounced slavery and the slave trade.
Quakers and Mennonites went on to protest again and again, and Quaker assemblies forbade their member's owning slaves. Some provinces passed laws against the slave trade, though somehow they didn't really stick. Slaves petitioned the Massachusetts legislature themselves in 1773 for their freedom. The first abolitionist society was formed in Philadelphia in 1775. And Lord Dunmore proclaimed that any slave who would fight for the king would be freed. Clearly, there was resistance and protest before Jefferson showed up.
Also, he wasn't actually protesting against slavery was he? He blamed the king for the slave trade and slavery, but excoriated George III for offering slaves their freedom -- not something one would expect from a true opponent of slavery. And in the end, his protest wasn't actually part of the official written records of the country's foundation, was it?
He was making the statement that one of the issues prompting the separation of the colonies was the ongoing British government's efforts to thwart or reverse efforts in the colonies to exit the slave trade.
But of course, it wasn't, was it? Some provinces had indeed banned the slave trade as part of the policy of not buying from Britain, but I don't see any evidence that Britain or her king tried to "thwart" or "reverse" these efforts. Those provinces did that on their own after becoming states.
Clearly Thomas Jefferson was the single, outspoken advocate of the elimination of the slave trade, when others would not risk taking that position.
Outspoken? How? The timid Jefferson chose not to fight on this issue. We don't exactly know if the others did or what they did, but Jefferson, who was too timid to speak before Congress after he became President, didn't defend his words.
And, as people have pointed out to you already, the Declaration wouldn't in itself have forbidden slavery or the slave trade. I give Jefferson some credit for his protestation, but it doesn't wipe away his later stand on slavery, and I don't see any reason to demean other founders to make Jefferson shine brighter.
But you found what I said, and that was that Jefferson's DOI convention exposure of the Crown and the slave trade for what it was...an abomination, was the first effort of a founder. Others arose at the Constitutional Convention, and after exhausting themselves, the best they could do was agree to end the trade in 1808. But Jefferson remains the first and only statesman to lend his voice on a national level.
And when you concluded that “resistance and protest before Jefferson” was occuring, your evidence did not rise to the issue. Nice attempt at a red herring.
Did I say Red Herring? What about these:
“...the Declaration wouldn't in itself have forbidden slavery or the slave trade.
Pointing out the absence of what was an unknown does not change the facts of Jefferson's actions.
“...and I don't see any reason to demean other founders to make Jefferson shine brighter.”
I certainly agree and would appreciate you naming any of the other 56 delegates that agreed with Jefferson, so that we may not include them in the list of people unwilling to take the Jefferson stand against the slave issue.