It is important to remember that at the time the Declaration of Independence was drafted, slavery was an institution that existed globally. That millions of white people were slaves in North African and Central Asia and a European traveling to Algeria might well have expected to encounter a "white slave" as commonly as a "black slave" in America.
Shortly after the Reformation, the abolitionist movement emerged as a product of "liberal" thought (liberalism as an ideology combined beliefs that emerged during the Reformation regarding God's relationship with man and observations by scientists regarding the "nature of man").
But the abolitionist movement was resisted everywhere it went... in fact, it was resisted more strenuously in the "non-white" world than among white nations and even today several nations have not abandoned slavery. Why? Because while white nations were torn between slavery and no slavery, other parts of the world remain rooted in far more class-based society with a "elite class" at the top and slaves at the bottom regardless of their skin color.
Slavery was the status quo of the world since at least 4000 BC (the first record of slaves being black Africans bought by the Egyptians to supplement the labor force being used to build the infrastructure of the Egyptian Empire.
Even as slavery thrived everywhere in the world including in our country, the influence of liberalism was so strong, that the authors of the Declaration of Independence were able to put down in words an aspiration which remains among the core values of our society today.
Life, liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (better understood as the pursuit of self-defined purpose)
I doubt any of the signers of this document believed that the society described would be more than just an aspiration and clearly, they did not expect slavery would in their lifetimes (though there were many abolitionists at the time).
Social structures that had been in place for thousands of years was not going to transform into a society that granted every human on the planet... unalienable human rights.
Fast forward to today...
Modern progressive ideology embraces concepts of woke ideology also known as group identity. The ideology promotes separatism, which at its core promotes bigotry. The intent is to create a society that shares power and wealth across the various groups that comprise it, but history shows the reality is that in time one group dominates the others.
And so, as we look at our Founding Fathers rather than see them as imperfect or perfect, we should view them just like us. Look at how easily our society is slipping back into justifying using race to defend unequal behavior. Even when it is being used to "fix" problems we see in our society to achieve equitable outcomes.
In my old age I am in awe of the insight of MLK. In his writings he saw through the noise of justified separatism and declared that our only chance of achieving those goals first laid out in the Declaration of Independence is to embrace integration with all our being.
The abolitionists saw the first step... ending slavery. But separatists responded with segregation.
The civil rights movement identified the next step, social integration and the end of institutional and system racism.
But the end game is the end of "separate" group identities and the full integration of society... often termed the blending of "genes", cultures, and traditions into the American melting pot with the final product being an American... not an African American, not European American, or Native American... just an American.
We were on that road for two hundred years and we have strayed from it. People felt that perhaps a little racism is okay if it is used to achieve a greater good. It isn't. Our Founding Fathers tried to create a world of equality and separatism... it does not work. Let's do better and commit fully to integration.
