In fact, Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration did recognize the issue of slavery. In it, he stated that King George had "waged cruel War against Nature itself, violating its most sacred Rights of Life and Liberty in the Persons of a distant People who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into Slavery in another Hemisphere, or to incur miserable Death, in their Transportation thither."...
All of the participants in the Second Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence knew that slavery was an issue that concerned the nation. Slavery had already been abolished in England and Europe. Many of the founders and other citizens in the colonies argued for emancipation. Although he was a slaveholder, Thomas Jefferson along with James Madison and Patrick Henry had tried to have the Virginia Assembly figure out how to stop the importation of slaves in 1772, but King George III stopped the Assembly from taking action...
Those who drafted the Declaration believed that it was better to remove the section dealing with slavery than risk a long debate over the issue of slavery. They needed the support for independence from the southern states. The clause itself was stricken out at the request of delegates from South Carolina, and Georgia, but with the agreement of New England states. The delegates recognized that the Declaration was going to result in war with England and that if the colonies were not united, they would not prevail. It was too big an issue for thirteen separate and independent colonies to tackle before they had even formed a country or won independence from England.
At the same time, the Founders knew that eventually slavery had to be ended.
