On the declaration, Bill Dorsey

"Declaration", Tracy K. Smith

"He has

sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people.
 

He has plundered our—
 

ravaged our—
 

 destroyed the lives of our—
 

taking away our—
 

abolishing our most valuable—
 

and altering fundamentally the Forms of our—
 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for

Redress in the most humble terms:

 Our repeated

Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.
 

We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration

and settlement here.
 

—taken Captive

 on the high Seas

  to bear—"            

          The issue of slavery was brought up at the First Continental Congress in 1774.  Unsurprisingly, the founders, all but seven of whom were slaveholders either currently or formerly, decided to postpone a solution¹. This practice continued through the decades with compromise after compromise, concession after concession, and most importantly, thousands dead after thousands more dead. People talk now about George Washington's farewell address and preach about what he told posterity to avoid: factionalism, political parties, intervening in foreign affairs, and so forth. He did not mention the specter of forced servitude within the fifty paragraphs of his speech. The only reference that can be found is in the ironic argument that "[t]he nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave." The most important question of the 900,000 or so who were in every degree a slave, was not called out or discussed. It would ultimately be answered by 600,000 dead soldiers on top of the countless others already murdered, raped, held captive, and in every way abused by the tradition of bondage the Civil War reckoned with. If George Washington, revered as he was, or any other founder, had chosen to press the issue of slavery and hold himself accountable to the higher justice he claimed to answer to, maybe this destruction could have been lessened. Instead, he and every other man of power and station in the world's newest democracy kicked the can down the road to ruin. 

1. It was agreed to end the practice of slave trade, but not slavery itself. This is difficult to be seen as much more than a pragmatic or symbolic decision, as-

a. the population of enslaved African-Americans was by this date large enough to sustain itself without continuing imports, 

and-

b. abolishing the slave trade could generate useful political currency or public goodwill while having no real effect on the future of chattel slavery in the United States.

11/6/2017