Declaring for change

The Declaration of Independence is rife with moral contradictions, much like the nation its drafters founded. The Preamble asserts that “all Men are created equal” and that the powers of government should derive from “the Consent of the Governed.” But a majority of the signers owned either a few or many of their fellow men and women. During his lifetime, Thomas Jefferson, the document’s principal author, compelled over six hundred Black slaves to toil at his estate in central Virginia.

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