[BroJoeK]

jeffersondem: "The numbers suffice as rebuttal: 41 of 56."

They don't, because they are limited & out of context.
For an accurate picture, we need the following:

1. A listing of all 149 Founders who signed the four major Founding documents -- 1774 Continental Congress, 1776 Declaration, 1777 Articles of Confederation and 1787 Constitution.

2. A listing of slaveholding Declaration signers.

3. A listing of slaveholding Constitution signers.

The results show that:

1. 1776 Declaration of Independence:
   92% of Southern delegates owned slaves.
   50% of Northern delegates owned slaves.
   71% of overall delegates owned slaves in 1776.

2. 1787 Constitution Convention:
   77% of Southern delegates owned slaves.
   17% of Northern delegates owned slaves.
   50% of overall delegates owned slaves in 1787.

Bottom line: in the years between 1776 and 1787 slave ownership fell 2/3 among Northern delegates and 16% among Southern delegates, about 30% overall.

So, you simply cannot dispute the fact that our Founders opposed slavery in theory in 1776 and by 1787 had begun putting their anti-slavery theory into practice, even in the South.

That is a far cry from Fire Eater attitudes in 1860.

[jeffersondem]

“Bottom line: in the years between 1776 and 1787 slave ownership fell 2/3 among Northern delegates and 16% among Southern delegates, about 30% overall. So, you simply cannot dispute the fact that our Founders opposed slavery in theory in 1776 and by 1787 had begun putting their anti-slavery theory into practice, even in the South. That is a far cry from Fire Eater attitudes in 1860.”

So much for the vaunted 1832 demarcation.

Regardless, there does seem to be in Puritan minds two epochs: the golden era of slavery when northern and southern gentlemen talked the pious precept, and manageable narrative, of universal equality for slaves and the merciless Indian savages while engaged in the noble use of labor bound to service to grow food and fiber - and later the bad epoch when southerners used labor bound to service to grow food and fiber.

TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS!, the man said.