Friday, June 11, 2021

On this date in 1776...

 A Committee of Five was named by the Second Continental Congress to draft a document declaring the independence of the thirteen colonies from England.

The link goes to the Wikipedia page on the Committee of Five, which is rather brief, and includes a snippet from Thomas Jefferson's memoirs about material removed:

The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms with still haunted the minds of many. For this reason, those passages which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest they should give them offense. The clause, too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to continue it. 

 

1 comment:

Old NFO said...

Thanks for the history lesson! :-)