40 / 50
would inspire Washington’s men at the Battle of Trenton,
said a “slave, who is proper owner of his freedom, has
the right to reclaim it, however often sold.”
Benjamin Franklin was another opponent of slavery.
Following the War for Independence, Franklin was a
founder of the Pennsylvania
Abolition
Society. On
February 12, 1790—just a few weeks before his death—
Franklin signed a petition submitted to Congress, calling
for the federal government to outlaw slavery.
By the time the Continental Congress met in
Philadelphia, most of the nations of the world had out-
lawed slavery. Even England ended slavery in 1772.
Jefferson made a statement against slavery in his orig-
inal draft of the Declaration. He accused King George of
permitting slaves to be introduced into the colonies. He
called slavery “a cruel war against human nature itself
and violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty.”
The delegates from the
southern colonies of South
Carolina and Georgia object-
ed. Fearing those delegates
would walk out of the con-
vention, and that the vote
for independence would not
be unanimous, Jefferson
agreed to take the words
regarding slavery out of the
declaration.
38
The Declaration of Independence: Forming a New Nation
Make Connections
The bell that summoned
Philadelphians to the
public square in front of the
State House on July 8, 1776, to
hear the first reading of the dec-
laration was eventually adopted
by people who opposed slavery.
An Abolitionist pamphlet pub-
lished in 1839 first referred to
the bell as the “Liberty Bell.”