Featuring: Larry Kenneth Alexander
Transcript:
Today, we stand as torchbearers of justice, determined to confront the myths that have shaped the narrative of America’s inception—a narrative that has obscured the legal and moral contradictions at the heart of our nation’s early history. The Declaration of Independence, that revered document of liberty and human dignity, was penned in July 1776, boldly proclaiming separation from British rule. It stands as a testament to the aspirations of the Founding Fathers. Yet woven into this moment of defiance is a pivotal and often overlooked reality: by the time those revolutionary words were inscribed, the colonial slave codes—those odious legislative constructs that institutionalized human bondage—had already been dismantled under British imperial governance.
Yes, you heard that correctly. The legal foundation for slavery in the colonies was severed prior to the birth of the United States. It is a profound truth, yet one overshadowed by enduring myths. Nothing that transpired during America’s Revolution reinstated those abolished codes. The prism through which we must view the ahistorical claim that Black colonials were legally owned by white colonials under English law is Thomas Jefferson’s original Declaration of Independence. Through this lens, we can critically bridge the Founding Fathers’ grievance about the abolition of patriots’ “most valuable laws” in the Declaration and the British government’s choice to abolish colonial slave codes before the nation’s founding.
By doing so, we can unearth a truth about our shared history, a truth that compels us to reevaluate the very foundations of America’s legal and moral identity. Let us turn back the clock to 1619, when the first Africans arrived in the colony of Virginia. These men and women were not slaves under English law; they were indentured servants, bound by contracts of labor but not shackled by the legal machinery of perpetual enslavement. Under the English Magna Carta of 1215, such colonial slavery was neither codified nor compatible with the principles of English law.
The colonial slave codes that emerged over time were extra-legal constructs, birthed in defiance of colonial charters and English legal traditions. These codes, which sought to strip away the humanity of Black individuals, were not products of British legislative approval. England’s highest court, the Court of the King’s Bench, affirmed this in the landmark 1772 case Somerset v. Stewart. In declaring slavery odious, the court ruled that the institution could only be lawful through positive law explicitly enacted by the British Parliament—a legislative step Parliament had not taken.
The British imperial government’s authority over the colonies was unequivocal, a fact cemented by the American Colonies Act of 1766, also known as the Declaratory Act. This act not only affirmed Parliament’s supreme legislative authority but also abolished colonial slave codes that directly challenged both Parliament’s sovereignty and the principles of the English Bill of Rights of 1689.
What does this mean for us today? It means that the narrative of a legal foundation for slavery in pre-revolutionary America is a myth—a distortion of history. The abolition of those codes before 1776 demands that we confront the moral and legal contradictions embedded in the founding of this nation. Our responsibility is clear: we must examine our history not as it has been told, but as it was, unearthing truths that demand accountability and inspire progress.
Let us commit to this task, for it is only by confronting the past with clarity and courage that we can truly honor the ideals of liberty. Please share this message and visit our website at the Wells Center on American Exceptionalism for more insights and future videos in this series.