It is one thing to choose death over enslavement for yourself, it is entirely another to make that choice for your children.
It is also easy to say you’d choose death in the abstract, but you might have a sudden change of heart when the machete is about to chop off your head.
I do not disagree, though it does make the Founders look a little hyperbolic, by your standard.
What I don’t understand is how you can defend the morality of those who impose this choice, or who profited by it once made. It is the utter antithesis of the American Way, to my mind. Which is, of course, only a restatement into political terms of the Golden Rule.