Because in a country formed with these words:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Slavery just did not fit with those words, and people knew it, especially the Founding Fathers. They REALLY should have dealt with it then rather than kicking the can down the road.
I do appreciate that winning Independence was the primary goal, and later forming a Union, but being true to oneself, sort to speak, was fundamentally important.
In our history, because of those words in the Declaration, and the fact that slavery was necessarily still allowed, meant we would have to face the music at some point. 650,000 Americans died in that war, and that should have been the end of it, but we have had racial fire fanners at it ever since.
That is absolutely wrong. In 1776, all the colonies were slave owning states. Insist that the Declaration of Independence frees slaves, and you destroy the coalition that was necessary to win freedom from the British.
Thomas Jefferson sparked the germ of an idea, and it took time to work it's way through people's minds. Deny it that time, and there would have been instant revolt to forming the United States.
It simply could not have been done at the beginning, and even "four score and seven years" later, it would not have been done except for reasons other than the immorality of slavery.
I do appreciate that winning Independence was the primary goal,...
Do not mistake it. It was the *ONLY* goal for the Declaration of Independence. The effort to make it into a commentary on slavery is rather dishonest, because the signatories interpreted that salient clause to mean themselves, not slaves. Claiming it was referring to slaves is a subsequent "Penumbra" type interpretation. Slavery is *NOT* what they meant when the representatives of the states signed that document.
“”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Those words were written by Thomas Jefferson, a substantial slave owner himself. And George Washington was probably the largest slave owner of his time.
What Jefferson was taking aim at in the Declaration was the divine right of kings, something that George III had been asserting to the detriment of his Colonial subjects. But why read Jefferson’s elegant language in context when everyone thinks that he is waxing philosophically over the injustice of chattel slavery.
London issued two emancipation proclamations during the Revolutionary War, Dunmore’s and Philipsburg, so had London defeated the colonial rebels slavery would have ended then.
Doesn’t that put King George on the right side of history according to your formulation?