* The major controversy surrounding the language and wording of the Declaration of Independence was the subject of slavery.
- Some of the founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, who was the principal author of the Declaration, owned slaves themselves and were reluctant to include language that would seem to condemn the practice.
- Ultimately, a compromise was reached in which the Declaration condemned the British "for endeavouring to bring on the inhabitants of these United Colonies, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions" and for exciting "domestic insurrections among us."
- However, this language did not directly condemn the institution of slavery, and it was not until the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted in 1865 that slavery was finally abolished in the country.