This is one of the most famous paintings in American history: Declaration of Independence. I decided to put red dots on all the men who held slaves. Next time someone puts them on a pedestal and says we can't question their judgement on guns or whatever, show them this image.

This is James Wilson, a great Scottish-born Pennsylvanian abolitionist who wrote, “Slavery, or an absolute and unlimited power in the master over the life and fortune of the slave, is unauthorized by the common law"

Here's the founders in this painting who weren't slaveholders. List is short enough to fit in a tweet: Sam Adams Robert Paine Elbridge Gerry George Clymer James Wilson Thomas McKean Roger Sherman Charles Thomson Will Williams Sam Huntington John Adams Will Ellery George Walton

If we haven't crossed paths on Twitter before, my name is Arlen and I cannot stand when people act like the founding fathers were, like, unquestionable gods. They were people! Read a couple more of my tweets on this subject here:

Kind of weird that in the year of our lord 2019 we're still walking around with pictures of old slaveholders in our pockets. At least Ulysses S. Grant on the $50 and Benjamin Franklin on the $100 did eventually free the people they held and spoke out against the practice.

It... kind of does though. Especially when you realize that some of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence were slave traders whose idea of freedom was themselves being free to conduct their business of importing people from Africa without paying taxes to King George

When people say "But everybody held slaves back then!" remind them of John Adams. Before he became our second president, he was an abolitonist lawyer who represented escaped slaves in court and tried to free them. Here is what he said about slavery:

If you appreciated this thread, share it and take a deep breath... Check this out to learn about the badass early black members of Congress that history has basically erased:

New: I’ve learned that a well known news organization is working on a fact check of the image I made that went viral. Because I have nothing to hide, I welcome this! I’ll of course tweet out a link to their results (no matter what they say).

Big thanks to @KertscherNews of @PolitiFact who poured over countless documents, books, & records to figure out if my claim about founding father slaveholders was true or false. Here’s their ruling, along with a great article that adds new context:

@arlenparsa Hi. I’m so glad I happened across your page! Question: The red dots were enslaved-ppl-holders. The yellow dots freed their ppl. Was Adams the ONLY one who never had any?

@just_samanthaf No, there is a list here:

@arlenparsa @threadreaderapp Would you please do readers a favor and kindly unroll this thread? Much thanks in advance!

@arlenparsa He only freed the passing children. Let's not forget that.

@arlenparsa And the yellow dots really put the others to shame. It's not that we are judging the past with modern standards; people knew how to be decent back then. Impressive visualization.

@arlenparsa @WSMIreland Going to add Jefferson groomed a child he eventually raped. Because that was the kind of guy he was.

@arlenparsa Her name was Sally Hemmings. It's believed that she was 14 yrs. old when 44 yr. old Jefferson began raping her. She gave birth to six of his children, four lived into adulthood. Jefferson installed her in a "room" next to his. It was and 14ft, 8 inches wide &13ft long.

@arlenparsa @deray America was born out of violence, bigotry and racism. It was taken by force, built by slaves and has been unjust to the Natives and all POC since then.

@arlenparsa Sally Hemings chose to return to America with Jefferson from France, where she could have remained and joined a community of free blacks. If it was rape when it started, she chose to continue it.

@arlenparsa Even with these red dots on their faces these men did more to free slaves here and abroad then you. Because they were the instrument instruments of change. You pointing out the bad in them does not make you good. Sadly we've gone from whitewashing history to cancel culturing it.