Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence will undergo several dozen deletions and edits before it was agreed upon unanimously in 1776. The portion that we were given that begins "He has waged cruel war..." was the one change Jefferson fought against harder than any other suggestion made by his colleagues in the Second Continental Congress.
Share in the comments why you believe that Thomas Jefferson, a captor of enslaved Americans himself, fought to keep this alleged grievance against the King of England in the Declaration of Independence.
As is our practice well will respond to at least two of our classmates.
I believe that Thomas Jefferson argued to include the part accusing the king of "raging a cruel war..." because he believed it would get two things done. The first of those is exposing the hypocrisy and foul play of the British. British officials such as Lord Dunnmore had suggested that slaves take up arms against their owners and rebel, during the revolutionary war. However, as Jefferson points out their captivity is more at the fault of the British than the Americans. The slaves would not be there if it were not for British slavers, and yet the British were trying to make it seem as though they had nothing to do with slavery. Hoping the slaves should rebel against their current captors rather than their original ones. In exposing the hypocrisy of the British this section in the Declaration of Independence might also help to sway slaves even further to the American side. A large group of slaves did not support the colonialist in the war, and claiming that its a bed thing of the British too "keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold" in one of the most important and read documents of its time, would shed the Americans in a better light in their relation to the slaves. Those two reasons combined are why I believe Thomas Jefferson argued to keep in the section regarding the Kings transgressions when it came to slavery.
ReplyDeleteI agree, and I your point about trying to convince enslaved people to try and sway more in favor of the colonists was a motivation that I did not think of, but it definitely influenced Jefferson's decision to fight for this point.
DeleteI agree with the idea that he wanted to shed light on Britain's hypocrisy despite him also owning enslaved people, and it ties directly with your second claim. Exposing the British would in fact help sway the enslaved people to the colonists side.
DeleteHe was allowing himself to be put in a bad light in order to show Britain in a worse one, I agree.
DeleteThe slaves definitely played a major part in the Declaration of Independence and Jefferson's wording. That is one of the main reasons as to why the Civil War occurred.
DeleteI agree as he blames the slaves on Britain to get the slaves to support the Americans.
DeleteI agree because if placed the blame on the British it would most probably cause the slaves to feel that staying with the colonists would and was the better option.
DeleteI agree that placing the blame of slavery on Britain may encourage enslaved people to rise up against the British and support the Americans.
DeleteThomas Jefferson included the argument that the king was "raging a cruel war" in the Declaration of Independence because, while it exposed his own hypocrisy, it put the British in a much worse light. They were the originators of the slave trade, and yet they were attempting to convince enslaved people to rebel against their owners, and Jefferson saw this as an opportunity to ruin their reputation in the eyes of enslaved people. Many enslaved people did not support the colonists in the revolutionary war at first because the British promised freedom if they were to join the British army, but Jefferson saw right through this and wanted to urge enslaved people away from fighting against the colonists.
ReplyDeleteI also think this was a major reason why Jefferson included the argument. He wanted to take the blame off of himself and other owners of enslaved people in the colonies.
DeleteFurthermore, this shift of blame and light shed on British hypocrisy could lead to a shift in support by the slave community.
DeleteI agree because he wasn't stupid, he was aware that it was very hypocritical of him, but it portrayed the British as much more hypocritical.
DeleteJefferson places the British people as the puppet masters of the slave trade and as a result they look much worse then the actual owners of the slaves.
DeleteI agree that this is the main reason why Jefferson put that quote in, he wanted to pin the blame on the British and expose what they did
DeleteThomas Jefferson included the argument that the king was "raging a cruel war" in the Declaration of Independence for the same reason John Adams allowed them to include the piece about the Boston Massacre. John Adams knew he protected these murderers from being found guilty in court, but wanted to get colonists on their side, so he allowed Jefferson to talk about how the British were able to get away with the murder of colonists. Similarly, Thomas Jefferson owned enslaved people and knew what would happen if they were to revolt against the Americans. He wanted this grievance of the king to remain in the declaration so that he could shift the blame back onto the British, stopping the enslaved people from rebelling and joining the British army. This would also help convince the enslaved to support the colonists and the revolution.
ReplyDeleteThey had to sacrifice their own fallacies to shine light on what the British had done wrong. In doing so they were able to do something the British rarley did, show how they were wrong, and be able to sway more people to the colonial side.
DeleteI agree that Thomas Jefferson wanted to move the blame towards the British hoping it stop the enslaved people from rebelling.
DeleteI agree -- he wanted enslaved people's support, and the only way he could due so was by including this argument in the Declaration, and even though it exposed his own hypocrisy, it mainly served to ruin the reputation of the British in enslaved people's minds.
DeleteI believe that Thomas Jefferson fought to keep this alleged grievance against the King of England in the Declaration of Independence because he wanted to keep the enslaved people on the Americans side. If he put the blame on the King saying things such as, "suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit
ReplyDeleteor to restrain this execrable commerce [determining to keep
open a market where MEN should be bought and sold]" would make the former slaves believe that it was the kings fault the entire time as to why they were forced to be slaves. Without this being included. The slaves could have chosen to work with the British people and that would make the war a lot harder to win for the Americans.
I agree with you, he was probably trying to get more people on their side.
DeleteI agree that Thomas Jefferson probably added this to get more people onto their side and not the British.
DeleteI agree with you, he was only trying to keep slaves on his side to prevent trouble within the colonies.
Deletei agree because if they blamed the British for what slaves had to go through then they wouldn't feel that the colonists where to blame. and them not having resentment against the colonist then they wouldn't rebel.
DeleteI agree with you. I think he was trying to increase support and pull it away from Britain to increase the chances of the colonists winning.
DeleteI believe that Thomas Jefferson fought to include this alleged grievance against King George III to expose the British wrongdoings, and to galvanize enslaved people and abolitionists. The British were the instigators of the slave trade, and they were depriving slaves of the liberty the Declaration viewed as an unalienable right. They were accusing the British of waging war against those rights just to turn a profit. Along with that, putting the British at fault for slavery and displaying the Declaration as anti-slavery may have caused many enslaved people and abolitionists to take up the American side, as the British are being portrayed as slavemongers, whereas the colonies were being portrayed as anti-slavery in this particular paragraph.
ReplyDeleteI agree and think he was definitely trying to put blame on the British and portray Americans as anti-slavery.
DeleteI think that Thomas Jefferson pushed to include this to get more slaves on the sides of the Americans and to try and expose the hypocrisy of the British, while on the outside the British may have seemed opposed to slavery, they actually began the slave trade benefited heavily from it.
ReplyDeleteI agree because exposing hypocrisy is always a great way to win arguments and by extension get more people on your side.
DeleteI think that Thomas Jefferson fought to keep the part of the declaration that accused the king of "raging a cruel war" to expose the British. The British were trying to convince slaves to rebel against their masters even though the British owned slaves too and had slave trade. This moved some of the blame away from the Americans and onto the British. Thomas Jefferson may have thought that if he moved the blame towards the British, the enslaved people might not rebel against them.
ReplyDeleteThe more people blame the king the more they can justify their succession
DeleteIt's just like when my brother breaks a wine glass and then he says, "HALE WAS UP TILL 6AM YESTERDAY," and then some of the attention gets passed onto me. It makes the anger travel from him onto me, and suddenly it's both of our problems.
DeleteI think that Tomas Jefferson wanted to include the part about raging a cruel war because he wanted to make sure that the enslaved people on the American side, obviously he had a personal stake in this as it would cause him a financial loss if the slaves he owned and also portraying the British as cruel would get more people on his side.
ReplyDeleteDistracting the enslaved people from their own misery is definitely one of many goals that Thomas Jefferson had in mind.
DeleteI agree, Jefferson was worried about suffering a serious financial loss if he hadn't put all blame on the British.
DeleteI didn't think about the personal loss but that's probably accurate as well. Also Thomas is spelled with and like Thomas and not Tomas, git gud!
DeleteI agree, in addition to making the fault on Britain to make the colonies look better, Jefferson was definitely worried about slaves running away to join the British Army/Navy.
DeleteThomas Jefferson states that "He has waged cruel war," in the Declaration of Independence. The word "he" refers to King George III, the King of England during the American Revolution. This is because Jefferson wanted to put the British in a bad sense. He wants to put the fault onto the British, so that there will be more support to the Americans, rather than the British. Furthermore, Jefferson wants to pin the blame onto one person, so that Americans have more reason to despise the British. This would also apply to African Americans and slaves. Jefferson wanted to distract the slaves from their misery, and tell them to focus on the American Revolution.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Jefferson wanted to blame the King
DeleteThomas Jefferson fought to keep the statement "He has waged cruel war to expose the hypocrisy of the British and to get the slaves on their side. He did this to discourage slaves from rebelling against their colonial masters, pointing out that it was the British's fault for maintaining the slave trade, and the blame was on Britain for being enslaved, thus exposing the British at fault, yet the British also wanted the slaves to join their cause and rebel against their current masters.Thomas Jefferson also thought that if the slaves knew, they'd be more likely to support the revolution, and not join the British Army or Navy. These are the two reasons why he insisted on writing "He has waged wars" in the constitution.
ReplyDeleteI agree because the more blame they could put on the king, the more they could rile up the people against England
DeleteI agree, this was all to convince the enslaved people to supporting the colonists. The people had to be convinced with this big information piece.
DeleteThomas Jefferson wanted to put all blame on the British to ensure that the higher-ups of the colonies were not shed under a bad light. He wanted to make them the clear-cut enemy with no grey areas so nothing could come to him. He wanted to ensure that America would stay unified with slaves and bring them to his side.
ReplyDeleteYour insight about grey areas was really interesting, and puts a lot of the declaration in a different light.
DeleteI agree that Jefferson wanted to make the British look bad, so he found ways to blame any problems he could on the British.
DeleteThomas Jefferson fought to keep the passage in the Declaration of Independence about slavery because he wanted to pin as much as possible on the king. As shown by his other grievances, he is willing to bend the truth to blame the king as much as possible. He wanted to blame this on the king, even though he, and other Americans, were complicit, because he knew it would get some Americans on his side.
ReplyDeleteI believe that he fought to keep that in the Declaration of Independence in the hope that slavery and racism would not be in America, and that they could blame it on George 3 and move past it
ReplyDeletewhen Thomas Jefferson wrote "He has waged cruel war..." he is referring to king George the third and Britain as a whole. the reason he would have ant to say this is because of the hypocrisy that it shed on the actions of the crown. This is because there was a point where the British where claiming that of a slave rose up and reveled against their masters or helped fight the colonials they would gain their freedom. saying that it was the fault of the king that they where slaves would help the cause of the colonists as they would have the slaves on their side and against the British.
ReplyDeleteI agree, he put this in to convince the enslaved people to support the colonists.
DeleteThomas Jefferson included the argument that the king was "raging a cruel war" in the Declaration of Independence just as John Adams allowed them to speak hyperbolically about the Boston Massacre. John Adams was helping the people that murdered in the massacre but when Jefferson wrote about how the British had murdered many colonist even though only 5 people died, Adams did nothing because he wanted to catch the colonist attention and have them on his side. Jefferson wanted this to remain in the declaration to stop the enslaved people from joining the British army. This whole thing that Jefferson did, it was going to most likely bring the enslaved people onto the side of the colonist and they will not fight with the British.
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up a good similarity to this with the Boston Massacre. Both instances have strong one-sided perspectives that were exaggerated to make the British come off as the ones who start the fights, and make the colonials look better.
DeleteThomas Jefferson kept the line "The king raged a cruel war" in the Declaration of Independence because it made Britain out to be unethical and portrayed them in a way that would make the colonists that were on the fence about siding with the rebels fully commit to the ideals of the rebellion. It especially made the enslaved Americans less likely to revolt, and although Jefferson had no respect for enslaved people, he needed them to be on their side. A slave rebellion would not be great for the movement, especially when they're trying to fight the British at the same time. He also didn't want them trying to join the British forces.
ReplyDeleteThis also highlights elitism with how the British portrayed themselves as sophisticated, but are woefully incompetent and unhelpful to colonists trying to survive without oppression.
DeleteThomas Jefferson fought to keep this alleged grievance against the King of England in the Declaration of Independence because he wanted to show the hypocrisy of the British, as well as convince the enslaved Americans to fight on his side. For instance, the British tried to offer the enslaved people freedom if they fought the war on the side of England. Lord Dunmore in Virginia urged enslaved people to revolt against their masters. Jefferson would say this is hypocritical because he thinks the British are the ones who started enslavement in the first place, through the triangle trade. Jefferson also knows that if he shines this light on the British wrongdoings in slavery, it will make the colonials look better, making the enslaved people want to fight for the colonies.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the contradicting views made the campaign the British held for enslavement highly hypocritical and counterproductive.
DeleteI believe Jefferson held his grievance against the king in order to highlight the opposing view the British imposed about enslavement. Lord Dunmore's campaign for revolt against masters when the British themselves largely promote enslavement was a contradicting point, thus leading Jefferson to act on it in an attempt to sway enslaved people.
ReplyDeleteI agree that he was trying to highlight that the British maintained and established the slave trade in America in the first place.
DeleteThomas Jefferson fought to keep the line "The king raged a cruel war" in the Declaration of Independence due to the fact that it clearly showed a grievance against the King of England. This line allowed him to clearly put Britain in a bad point of view and he could blame some of his hypocrisy and Americas overall issues onto the fact that Britain was in control when they occurred. Not to mention, this would also allow for slaves to be beneficial towards the rebellion if Jefferson could get them to align with his point of view, and place blame for all grievances solely on the British.
ReplyDeleteThomas Jefferson wanted to keep the line, "He has waged cruel war..." in order to persuade colonials who weren't for the war effort. Putting all the blame on the king for the colonials problems provided a scapegoat. Using strong language like cruel war would've only strengthened Jefferson's impact. Keeping this line would also give slavery a scape goat, which was the king instead of the american people. This could then persuade various slaves into joining the patriot side instead of the british.
ReplyDelete