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"Declaration of Independence: A Contradiction"

Even northerners profited form the trade of slaves as well, this quote exhibits the feeling of people around that time period, "Since there are no minutes of the debate about the Declaration in Congress, we can only conclude from Jefferson's private notes that mentioning the topic displeased both Southern planters, especially those in South Carolina and Georgia who -in contrast to Virginians - wanted to continue to import more cheap enslaved laborers, and Northern merchants and skippers who profited from the slave trade
             "(Adams) Many southerners would have cried out against government if the Declaration of Independence included the rights of slaves as well. Many southerners were dependent on slaves to farm the land and manage their estates and plantations. And it was evident what would happen without the use of slavery. When Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery after the Civil War, Southern States started to become less productive and in return made the south dwindle in wealth. This view of slaves as just property is intertwined with the economic factor behind the contradiction of the Declaration of Independence Jefferson and the founding fathers wrote. .
             Another reason for the apparent contradiction in the Declaration of Independence would be Jefferson and the founding fathers view of the "men" that were equal in the eyes of the founding fathers. The "men" that the founding fathers were referring to were those of European decent, more typically Anglo-Saxon, Protestant males who owned land. These were the elite of the country and typically were individuals who held government positions or had a say in government itself. The Declaration of Independence .
             3.
             had a sole purpose to break free form the clutches of England. To break free from the grasp of a country that Americans viewed as a tyrant.


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