People didn't realize then.
But when you write these words, “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.” others are inspired by them.
Eventually those words are true or they are lies.
All humanity is created by God. He gives us all the same rights. The Founding Fathers understood this. Except, given the realities of the times, did not include slaves in this declaration. Privately though, they argued for even that.
From a Believer's standpoint, enslavement based on skin color and birth was wrong.
What does a truly Saved Christian say to a Black Christian who wants his Freedom?
You cannot justify to the Savior for keeping someone like that in bondage. You just can't.
Even Blacks deserved to be asked their consent when you all are spouting off about "consent of the governed". What about their consent?
I am a Southerner, but I do think African slavery was indeed a sin.
I am a Southerner , by choice, and agree with your thoughts and sentiments.
Eventually those words are true or they are lies.
When they were written, they were not intended to be seen as a statement about slavery. No thought was given to those words applying to slaves, those words were meant as applying to the British Subjects in the colonies and no one else.
It is a later day deliberate misdirection for people to apply those words to slavery. All the representatives of the 13 slave owning states signed that document, and none of them saw those words as applying to slaves.
Nowadays it seems that most people think those are the only words in the Declaration of independence, and in truth, they are the least significant thing it says.
What is the Declaration of Independence? It is the assertion of a right to *INDEPENDENCE*. What it is *NOT* is a commentary on the issue of slavery. As i've pointed out, that was a later day invention.
The Declaration puts forth a *RIGHT TO INDEPENDENCE*. That is all it does.
In simple terms, it sides with the South's right to secede from a government it saw as corrupt and tyrannical.