" Perhaps the most radical statement was made
by the Reverend Isaac Skillman in 1773. Again, comparing the struggle
of the colonists with that of the slaves, he said that it was in
conformity with natural law that a slave could rebel against his
master.
In 1774 the Continental Congress did agree to a temporary
termination of the importation of Africans into the colonies, but, in
reality, this was a tactical blow against the British slave trade and
not an attack against slavery itself. In an early draft of the
Declaration of Independence, the British king was attacked for his in
involvement in the slave trade, and he was charged with going against
human nature by violating the sacred rights of life and liberty.
However, this section was deleted. Apparently, Southern delegates
feared that this condemnation of the monarch reflected on them as
well.
Although neither slavery nor the slave trade was mentioned in the
Declaration, it did maintain that all men were created equal and
endowed with the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This seeming ambivalence concerning the future of slavery on the part
of the Continental Congress left Samuel Johnson's ironic question
about American hypocrisy unanswered.
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