re: #513 stevieray

Late to the thread — was off watching “Alien”… the original is a classic gothic horror, set in space.

My understanding is Jefferson was consciously quoting Locke — but ran into a problem. He wanted to use the phrase “life, liberty, property…”, but wanted it made clear that people weren’t to be considered property even though some were at the time. When he couldn’t get that agreement from some of the other delegates, the phrase was changed to “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness…”

In short, the use of the word “property” would have entrenched slavery, and Jefferson (and some others) didn’t want to do that.

That is interesting indeed. But how does it square with Jefferson’s own slave holding?