Do our schools teach this:
“Among those who turned against slavery in the 18th century were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and other American leaders.” ~Thomas Sowell
What did our founders, specifically Thomas Jefferson believe about slavery when he wrote the Declaration of Independence?
From: Economic Clarity or Political Confusion Ch 17 “Steps of Change and Your Children”
“In America today, it appears too many schools teach our young the American way is enslaving people and stealing land. Putting history in context helps round this view. Human beings have migrated and encroached on other’s territories since man could walk, and all nation-states are the result of it. People have enslaved others since prehistoric times. Our founding fathers struck out with a proclamation they risked their lives on when they pronounced “all men are created equal.” Today, some history teachers curl their lips and tell us they meant only all white men.
Is this what Thomas Jefferson meant when he penned this line? Show your kids the first draft of the Declaration of Independence and the paragraph Congress took out after much debate. Google, “The First Draft of The Declaration of Independence,” or, “Jefferson’s Draft,” and save it to your computer. It removed the moral stain of slavery from the American experiment. He blamed the king with these words:
“He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold (Jefferson, 1760-1776) …”
Give them perspective. Jefferson called them “MEN,” capitalizing and emphasizing freedom for all is what he meant. Abolishing slavery was a difficult fight, but many had good intentions from the beginning. ” https://www.amazon.com/Economic-Clarity-Political-Confusion-Classical/dp/0578430215/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1547765974&sr=1-1