court rejected JeffersonÆs plea.
In 1776, drafting the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson had tried to link the political rights of Americans with the personal rights of slaves, but the Continental Congress had deleted the clause. This deletion does not seem to have caused Jefferson any distress. In his autobiography he writes, ôThe clause too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia . . . Our Northern brethren also I believe felt a little tender under those censuresö (Jeffe
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