"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with cer- tain inalienable rights..." Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence. "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are...testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, can long …showed first 75 words of 2122 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2122 total…signed the Constitution thirteen of them owned or managed estates that made use of black slaves. Many more never owned them, and many of them who had owned slaves while they were British citizens released them in the years following the Revolutionary War: George Washington, John Dickinson, Caesar Rodney, William Livingston, George Wythe, John Randolph. John Adams said, "My opinion against it has always been known...Never in my life did I own a slave."