Continental Congress Strikes Jefferson's Condemnation of Slave Trade from Declaration

Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence included a clause condemning King George for perpetuating the transatlantic slave trade, calling it a 'cruel war against human nature.' Delegates from South Carolina, Georgia, and some Northern states whose merchants profited from the trade objected. The Continental Congress struck the passage entirely. Jefferson later noted bitterly that it was removed to placate slaveholders in the South and traders in the North.