Since America’s beginning, there has been intense debate about slavery, precisely because it raises questions about the nation’s dedication to liberty and human equality. Slavery in the Americas had a contentious history, dating back to the Aztecs. It played a major role in our history triggering at least one revolution, one civil war, and many rebellions. At the time of the America’s beginning, there were about half a million slaves in the United States, mostly in the southern states, where they made up about forty percent of the population. Slavery is a system which people are treated as property to be bought and to be sold. Slaves were held against their will from the time of capture, time of purchase or sale, or at birth, and most of them were forced to work without having any right to refuse work or the right to demand compensation. Most slaves worked long hours, they weren’t properly fed by some, didn’t get enough rest, and weren’t treated fairly as a human being. At a young age, Thomas Jefferson took the honorable but challenging task of drafting the Declaration of Independence. This was around the time when the American colonies had conflicts with their British colonies. The Declaration of Independence states some of the grievances that the American colonies had against the British. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”(Declaration of Independence), the second sentence of the Declaration, was the most important statement that was argued before, during, and after the Declaration. The contradiction between the claim that “all men are created equal”(Declaration) and the existence of slavery attracted many opposing arguments about slavery and how slavery goes into consideration