Thomas Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence contained a passage denouncing the slave trade.

First Draft, Best Draft

by Greg Ross

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence contained a passage denouncing the slave trade:

He [George III] 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.

Congress removed it.

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