{"id":17484,"date":"2026-06-24T15:01:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484"},"modified":"2026-06-24T15:01:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:01:31","slug":"america-250-how-slavery-complicates-discussions-about-the-founding-fathers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484","title":{"rendered":"America 250: How slavery complicates discussions about the Founding Fathers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding, the subject of slavery and its connection to the Founding Fathers can be a complicated topic to discuss, historians said.<\/p>\n

Read more US says chemical maker Chemours to pay $450M to settle \u2018forever chemicals\u2019 case<\/a><\/p>\n

How many of the Declaration of Independence\u2019s 56 signers were slaveowners isn\u2019t clear. A 2022 exhibition in the Washington University libraries claims one-third of the signers owned slaves, a claim also mentioned by an article published on History.com.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Chicago documentary filmmaker Arlen Parsa claimed that 34 of the 47 of the Declaration\u2019s signers depicted in the painting depicting the document\u2019s signing were slaveowners. PolitiFact, which is a part of the Poynter Institute, interviewed over a dozen historians, compiled a spreadsheet detailing their research and determined that Parsa\u2019s statement was true.<\/p>\n

While the true number of slaveowners among the Founding Fathers remains uncertain, surviving historical records can prove with certainty that George Taylor, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was among this group.<\/p>\n

Taylor, who came to the New World as an indentured servant, is mainly remembered for his time running iron furnaces in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and being one of Pennsylvania\u2019s representatives on the Continental Congress. He also helped to construct Northampton County\u2019s first courthouse, which he then presided over from 1764 to 1772, and had a house built in Catasauqua that still stands today.<\/p>\n

In 1780, Taylor sent one of his slaves, named Tomm, to deliver a letter to Northampton County Magistrate Robert Levers to register him and another slave \u2014 named Samm \u2014 as belonging to Taylor for life in accordance with Pennsylvania\u2019s 1780 Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery. The letter is one of the artifacts stored by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Tim Betz, curator of exhibitions & programming for the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society, said Taylor\u2019s owning of slaves is one of the few things he can confirm from his research into surviving documents from the era.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of documents I\u2019ve seen that are actually written by George Taylor I can count off on my two hands. They include the letter registering Tomm and Samm,\u201d Betz said. \u201cThere\u2019s very little I know with absolute certainty about Taylor but what we know for certain is he chooses to register those men for the rest of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Betz said talking about Taylor\u2019s ownership of slaves can become a difficult conversation when he is mainly remembered for his contributions to both the Lehigh Valley and the founding of the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to square the circle of how could this person who signs the Declaration of Independence and is this local hero could also be an enslaver,\u201d Betz said. \u201cI think it can be both true that George Taylor believed in the ideas of independence and liberty and the things that\u2019ll become the American experiment but it\u2019s clear that, for him, that had limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trivia nights, valentine\u2019s cards: Overlooked social connections can prevent suicide<\/a><\/p>\n

Cory Young, an assistant professor at the University of Iowa who has spent almost a decade researching the history of slavery in Pennsylvania and catalogued his findings \u2014 including Taylor\u2019s letter \u2014 online through the website A Just and True Return, said Taylor represents a moral dynamic that he saw as being common among those seeking independence from Great Britain while also being slaveowners, even if they understood how the former could influence the latter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorians debate whether it\u2019s really talking out both sides of your mouth to clamor against political slavery while holding people in actual human slavery, but there were plenty of people who made their peace with it,\u201d Young said. \u201cTheir criticism in the 18th century was against a particular political relationship between a subjected people and their government as opposed to what they saw as a social institution or an economic institution of human slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Young said he found, through his research, that abolitionists of slavery disagreed on whether the Declaration of Independence, and the following U.S. Constitution, could be used to justify the end of slavery when those involved in influencing both documents were slaveowners. According to \u201cSigners of the Constitution,\u201d a book published in 1976 by the National Park Service, at least 12 of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention were slaveowners.<\/p>\n

However, Young said he believes continuing to reflect on the meaning of the language of both documents, especially the Declaration, shows how the United States had the potential, even from the beginning, to become a more equal nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States may be imperfect, but when you write, \u2018all men are created equal,\u2019 into your founding documents, that becomes a touchstone against which anyone interested in staking a claim in the United States is able to do so,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n

Scott Gordon, a professor of English at Lehigh University who was researching the Moravian church\u2019s presence in Bethlehem before discovering the 1780 Pennsylvania slave registry in 2022, said he didn\u2019t see the majority of people being unable to comprehend slavery\u2019s presence among the Founding Fathers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe need to preserve these people as untainted ideals is actually, to me, the thing that\u2019s puzzling,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why people need to do that. They\u2019re much more interesting people, and the circumstances are much more interesting, to understand their complexities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon said he didn\u2019t want to see the legacies of the Founding Fathers, including Taylor, be overshadowed by the fact that some of them owned slaves, nor have that fact be why people stop learning about them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur country would not be what it is without their ideas or their actions,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cWe\u2019re not really going to find perfect people at any time, including our own, but I think making them into perfect people is not a good practice either and I think remembering that, among other things, they held humans bound to them reminds us that they weren\u2019t perfect people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more TikTok is reinventing healthcare. Should you trust it?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding, the subject of slavery and its connection to the Founding Fathers can be a complicated topic to discuss, historians said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerica 250: How slavery complicates discussions about the Founding Fathers - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"America 250: How slavery complicates discussions about the Founding Fathers - Silicon Valley Moving Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding, the subject of slavery and its connection to the Founding Fathers can be a complicated topic to discuss, historians said.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Silicon Valley Moving Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-24T15:01:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/636e2e5a10a21cf87fe6eb5951e8a6b7\"},\"headline\":\"America 250: How slavery complicates discussions about the Founding Fathers\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-24T15:01:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484\"},\"wordCount\":1028,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/174fbe340635ff459bfb01e2e9a8bf48.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"National News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484\",\"name\":\"America 250: How slavery complicates discussions about the Founding Fathers - Silicon Valley Moving Post\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/174fbe340635ff459bfb01e2e9a8bf48.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-24T15:01:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/636e2e5a10a21cf87fe6eb5951e8a6b7\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/174fbe340635ff459bfb01e2e9a8bf48.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/174fbe340635ff459bfb01e2e9a8bf48.webp\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":682},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?p=17484#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"America 250: How slavery complicates discussions about the Founding Fathers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Silicon Valley Moving Post\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/636e2e5a10a21cf87fe6eb5951e8a6b7\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"America 250: How slavery complicates discussions about the Founding Fathers - Silicon Valley Moving Post","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"America 250: How slavery complicates discussions about the Founding Fathers - Silicon Valley Moving Post","og_description":"As the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding, the subject of slavery and its connection to the Founding Fathers can be a complicated topic to discuss, historians said.","og_url":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484","og_site_name":"Silicon Valley Moving Post","article_published_time":"2026-06-24T15:01:31+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/636e2e5a10a21cf87fe6eb5951e8a6b7"},"headline":"America 250: How slavery complicates discussions about the Founding Fathers","datePublished":"2026-06-24T15:01:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484"},"wordCount":1028,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/174fbe340635ff459bfb01e2e9a8bf48.webp","articleSection":["National News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484","url":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484","name":"America 250: How slavery complicates discussions about the Founding Fathers - Silicon Valley Moving Post","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/174fbe340635ff459bfb01e2e9a8bf48.webp","datePublished":"2026-06-24T15:01:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/636e2e5a10a21cf87fe6eb5951e8a6b7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/174fbe340635ff459bfb01e2e9a8bf48.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/174fbe340635ff459bfb01e2e9a8bf48.webp","width":1024,"height":682},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17484#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"America 250: How slavery complicates discussions about the Founding Fathers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/","name":"Silicon Valley Moving Post","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/636e2e5a10a21cf87fe6eb5951e8a6b7","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com"],"url":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}