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sovereignties, and took their placed in the family of independent nations. We must inquire who,
at that time, were recognized as the people or citizens of a State, whose rights and liberties had
been outraged by the English Government; and who declared their independence, and assumed
the powers of government to defend their rights by force of arms.
In the opinion of the court, the legislation and histories of the times, and the language
used in the Declaration of Independent, show, that neither the class of persons who had been
imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then
acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in
that memorable instrument.
It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public opinion in relation to that unfortunate
race, which prevailed in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the
Declaration of Independence, and when the Constitution of the United States was framed and
adopted. But the public history of every European nation displays it, in a manner too plain to be
mistaken.
They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order; and
altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far
inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro
might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold, and
treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it.
This opinion was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race. It was
regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics, which no one thought of disputing, or
supposed to be open to dispute; and men in every grade and position in society daily and
habitually acted upon it in their private pursuits, as well as in matters of public concern, without
doubting for a moment the correctness of this opinion.
And in no nation was this opinion more firmly fixed or more uniformly acted upon than
by the English government and English people. They not only seized them on the coast of
Africa, and sold them or held them in slavery for their own use; but they took them as ordinary
articles of merchandise to every country where they could make a profit on them, and were far
more extensively engaged in this commerce than any other nation in the world.
i. Colonial Laws
The opinion thus entertained and acted upon in England was naturally impressed upon the
colonies they founded on this side of the Atlantic. And, accordingly, a negro of the African race
was regarded by them as an article of property, and held, and bought and sold as such, in every
one of the thirteen Colonies which united in the Declaration of Independence, and afterwards
formed the Constitution of the United States. The slaves were more or less numerous in the
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