Special Edition - July 4th 1776
"Proclaim Liberty" ... To Whom? The Stain of Slavery during the American Revolution.
While actual numbers may never be known, it is estimated that close to one-fifth of the population of the Colonies (20 percent), were slaves. So, of the approximately 2.5 million inhabitants of the colonies in 1776, up to 500,000 were enslaved, plus those who were indentured or convicts who also lacked freedom. Women, unless widowed, also lacked basic freedoms afforded to men. When the Declaration of Independence declared that all men had certain inalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, it was only free white men who had those freedoms.
1790 to 1800: Slaves in the President's House [pictured above]
Until the District of Columbia was carved out, Philadelphia was the capital of the United States The President's House was just up the street from Independence Hall. George Washington owned slaves the entire time he lived there.
Slave power made things happen prior to the Industrial Revolution.
The rise of the Industrial Revolution (1760 to 1840) coincides with the birth and growth of the United States. Prior to that time, manual labor and animal labor were the only engines of work. Slavery allowed the slave owner the opportunity to increase the level of work that could be done in their name and for their purpose.
Forty-One (out of Fifty-Six) Signers of the Declaration owned slaves.
Their names are shown below, as well as the fifteen who did not own slaves.
SEE ALSO - The Stain of Slavery and Francis Alison in the HOME section of this website.
The Forty-One Signers who owned Slaves
The Forty-one:
New Hampshire – Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
• Massachusetts – John Hancock
• Rhode Island – Stephen Hopkins
• Connecticut – Oliver Wolcott
• New York – William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
• New Jersey – Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
• Pennsylvania – Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, John Morton, James Smith, George Taylor, George Ross
• Delaware – Caesar Rodney, George Read,
Maryland – Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton (about 300 people enslaved on his estate)
• Virginia – George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison V, Thomas Nelson Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
• North Carolina – William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
• South Carolina – Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch Jr., Arthur Middleton
• Georgia – Button Gwinnett, and Lyman Hall
The following signers did not own slaves: John Adams, Samuel Adams, George Clymer, William Ellery, Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Huntington, Thomas McKean, Robert Treat Paine, Roger Sherman, Charles Thomson, George Walton, William Williams and James Willson. [Charles Thomson, as previously noted, was not a signer of the Declaration; however, he was the Secretary of the Continental Congress who attested the document.]
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