USA 250th: Thomas Jefferson, Slavery and Our Declaration

There’s a line Thomas Jefferson wrote about slavery that most Americans never hear because it didn’t survive the final edits to the Declaration of Independence. 

Ken Mercer traces the original draft, the list of grievances against King George III, and the moment one of the most explosive complaints was removed so the colonies could agree and sign. If you care about the founding fathers, primary sources, and honest American history, this story forces a rethink of what the “birth certificate” of the United States really contained and what it left out.

Mercer also talks about the real stakes of signing in 1776. Adding your name wasn’t a patriotic gesture for the camera, it could mark you and your family for arrest, imprisonment, or worse. That pressure shaped the debates in Philadelphia and helps explain why unity sometimes won out over moral clarity. 

From there, we confront the central contradiction head-on: Jefferson’s famous claim that all men are created equal alongside the fact that he enslaved human beings, including during his presidency.

To widen the lens, Ken Mercer explores how religious currents like the Great Awakening influenced anti-slavery convictions, while also noting slavery’s long global history and the economic forces that kept it entrenched. We ground the discussion with key facts about the transatlantic slave trade and where most enslaved Africans were taken across the Atlantic world. 

Please listen, then share this with someone who loves history, and leave a review with the biggest question you’re left wanting to research next.

Transcript

The Declaration’s Hidden Complaints

SPEAKER_00 0:00

His name was Thomas Jefferson, one of our most famous founding fathers. He wrote our nation's birth certificate, our declaration of independence in 1776. There was no United States of America until July 4, 1776. But one thing it's been erased. And seemingly deleted from history, the declaration also listed complaints. It delineated complaints that Jefferson and the founders had with King George III. For example, things like denying trial by jury, taxes without representation, the quartering of British troops, which meant they could take over your home, take over your farm, take over your church, and use it for housing for British troops. But also, Jefferson, in his original document, complained that King George III brought human slavery to our 13 colonies. Wow. Have you heard that before? Again, the original draft. But why didn't it appear in the final version of our decoration? You know, I grew up thinking that Jefferson wrote this great declaration of independence, and everybody said, Yeah, the old comment, put my John Hancock on there, which is an expression for younger people. If you look at the decoration, right in the very top signatures, the middle, the center of the document, in extra large letters, it has the signature of John Hancock.

A Signature That Meant Death

SPEAKER_00 1:28

But that document was actually argued. It was debated. And there were things that were left in, and there were items that were amended. Some items were actually deleted. The 13 colonies had to agree to the final version of the declaration to put your name on there. Why? Because when you signed the Declaration of Independence with your name, you essentially had signed a death warrant. A death warrant. The British troops would go home to home and they had the names on there, and they could arrest and imprison you or your family, torture, even kill you, burn down your home, your business, if your name was on

Jefferson’s Equality Paradox

SPEAKER_00 2:10

that list. But something else you should know, very important, Thomas Jefferson, the man who inspired the whole world with this famous pronouncement that all men are created equal. His profound trilogy of inalienable rights, which are of course a life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But here's the paradox. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote those great words, he owned slaves. He inherited slaves from his father in 1768, eight years before our decoration. He acquired more slaves when he got married in 1773, just three years before the decoration. In fact, later on, years later, as president, he owned at least two hundred human slaves every one of the eight years that he was president. But the historical records prove the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, he lists the grievance. He blamed King George III for bringing slavery to our thirteen colonies. Wow. He called slavery, are you ready for this? A violation of the quote most sacred rights of life and liberty, end of quote. Those words sound familiar.

Why Slavery Wasn’t “New”

SPEAKER_00 3:29

And I have to interject now. I kind of wonder what was happening back then in the 1770s that may have influenced not just Jefferson but other founders. And you've heard me share before. I call it the three waves of the Great Awakening. The Great Awakening, these new Christians who said that slavery is a sin, and we must confront that sin. But wait a minute, something else was at play here. Human slavery was already over 8,000 years old. It did not start in the year 1619 that some of our colleges and some of our elected politicians try to tell us that it was invented by the United States. No, that's a stinking lie, a lie. It was already over 8,000 years old, and slavery was big money. Not one country in the whole world had abolished slavery. Not even the countries of Africa. And I'll give a talk on that, why that was, why not even the nations of Africa had abolished human slavery. The people of the Great Awakening, did they impact Thomas Jefferson and our founding fathers?

The Deleted Clause And What Next

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Jefferson's grievance on slavery was one of the most intense debates before we could even adopt the Declaration of Independence. And as you can imagine, as you can imagine, the Southern colonies, the slave colonies, it was ultimately deleted by the delegates in Philadelphia for the 1776 convention to have an agreement. Again, this seems self-contradictory. Thomas Jefferson owned an average of over 200 slaves. But he risked, he risked beginning the United States of America by publicly declaring in our founding document, in our birth certificate, that slavery was wrong. It was evil. My friends, let me conclude by sharing with you some of the actual comments from Thomas Jefferson's original draft of our declaration. He said he has waged, he being King George III, he has waged war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty. Jefferson continues, life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him. He's talking about the transatlantic African slave trade, carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere. History tells us, accounting tells us, there were over twelve million African slaves sold at the slave ports of the western coast of Africa, sold by other powerful African tribes. They were transported across the Atlantic Ocean, that's why it's called the transatlantic slavery. Of a 12 million, about 11.1 million survived. And of those, about 450,000 went to the what's now called the United States, then it was North America. The other 95% went to Central America, South America, and the Caribbean islands. But Jefferson continued. He said that King George was, quote, determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold. Jefferson complains. He capitalizes the word Christian, capital C-H-R-I-S-T-I-N, a Christian king of Great Britain, pretty much announcing that you call yourself a Christian and you're dealing in slavery. This is Jefferson complaining about the system. Here's a slave owner who kept his slaves. And years later, when he was president, he still had slaves. At least 200. This is a real paradox. This is a great time to go look at the rest of the story. But Jefferson was willing to begin our country by complaining that King George III brought slavery to our 13 colonies. Again, the southern colonies would not agree to that. So it had to be deleted. The original draft, that item on slavery, it was deleted to keep our nation together. And so the Southern colonists would go and sign that document. So there you go, my friends, our declaration of independence, July 4th, 1776. The one they signed after the Southern slave colonies said, no, we will not sign this if you have a complaint about human slavery. So that section from Jefferson was deleted. The beginning of our nation. The original document of our declaration, the southern colonies, the pro-slavery states or colonies would not sign our decoration if you had a complaint about human slavery. They argued, they debated, and finally they deleted, deleted Jefferson's complaint that King George III brought slavery to our 13 colonies. I hope you enjoyed today's session, and I hope it gives you a lot more questions that you want to go and look up yourself and say, hey, what did the actual, the original drug, the declaration, what did it say? What else was changed? What else was amended or deleted? There's more to come. And if you did, please hit the like button or subscribe button to let our sponsors know that Mercer Moments in American history is making a difference. Today I ask you for personal prayer for the high school students in post-secondary of a place called Virginia. And next time it could be your state. So let me close by saying, please never, never forget that in a place called the United States of America, in God we still trust. Right here, right here in America, in God we still trust. Thank you. And blessings.