In the course of my research on a website by the American Intercontinental University, I found interesting information in one of John Adams’ letters to a Timothy Pickering responding to Pickering’s questions about the writing of the Declaration. That’s when I picked up on a comment made by Adams when he reflected on his critique of the Declaration when Thomas Jefferson showed him his original draft. Adams wrote: “I was delighted with its high tone and the flights of oratory with which it abounded, especially that concerning Negro slavery, which, though I knew his Southern brethren would never suffer to pass in Congress, I certainly never would oppose.” That passage certainly made my ears perk up because I had never before seen a reference to a passage regarding slavery in the Declaration of Independence. My research Kthen led me to a website called BlackPast.org where I found the passage written by Jefferson in his original draft, but which indeed had been removed from the fi...