The want of a specific document with the specific words "whites and blacks are in fact equals" from the founding fathers does not mean that this attitude and belief did not exist among them. Why did many of them fight and argue for abolition, if they felt that black people were inferior?
Jefferson is an oft-used source for the supposed prejudice of the founding fathers (and the framers, despite his non-involvement), though even his own "pro-slavery" attitude is far more complex than "He owned slaves, therefore he was racist and believed in slavery". In his youth, he was very much pro-abolition, but in his naive belief that slow reform might avoid the nation shattering conflict that an abrupt and forced end would cause, he supported this idea that it could be gradually phased out. Even Lincolm occasionally supported that sort of thing, when he originally argued merely against allowing slavery in the new territories (and believing that the isolated South would eventually evolve economically to a point where slavery was no longer needed).
Jefferson, unfortunately, backed away from abolition in his later years, and I've heard many theories about that, regarding his debts or other reasons. Still, this didn't stop him from replying to Benjamin Benneker, a free African scientist, in 1791 while Secretary of State. Benneker had written asking that Jefferson use his influence to help ease the suffering of his brethren still under the yoke of slavery. Jefferson replied:
Sir,
I thank you, sincerely, for your letter of the 19th instant, and for the Almanac it contained. No body wishes more than I do, to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colors of men ; and that the appearance of the want of them, is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America. I can add with truth, that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced, for raising the condition, both of their body and mind, to what it ought to be, as far as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances, which cannot be neglected, will admit.
I have taken the liberty of sending your Almanac to Monsieur de Condozett, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and Member of the Philanthropic Society, because I considered it as a document, to which your whole color had a right for their justification, against the doubts which have been entertained of them.
I am with great esteem, Sir, Your most obedient Humble Servant,
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Now, this letter is nothing but a cop-out on Jefferson's part. He basically said: "Wow, man, I feel for you... but I'm not going to do anything." It's a shitty response.
But even a supposed racist as Jefferson could say something as apparently ground breaking as "blacks and whites are equal, and the only reason they look to be inferior is because we're not giving them equal access to the same education whites get". Conventional widsom would tell us that this is landmark, unheard of in its time, but even if we believe that Jefferson was just saying it to be nice in the midst of a letter that basically said: "Go screw yourself Banneker", other writings from the other founding fathers make it pretty clear that a great many of them did believe in equality of all men, regardless of skin color. Not all of them believed this, but many did, and even if we can't find those specific words you're asking for it's clear from the balance of their writings that they believed it very strongly, hence the fervor with which they fought slavery - even those framers who made the sad "lesser of two evils" Constitutional compromise to try and preserve the union.
So to answer your question from several comments back, the framers gave many indications that they believed black men and women were human beings. Some failed to live up to this expressed ideal. Others lived up to it but failed to enact the changes resisted by others within their own lifetime. But the belief was there, and is well documented.
no subject
Jefferson is an oft-used source for the supposed prejudice of the founding fathers (and the framers, despite his non-involvement), though even his own "pro-slavery" attitude is far more complex than "He owned slaves, therefore he was racist and believed in slavery". In his youth, he was very much pro-abolition, but in his naive belief that slow reform might avoid the nation shattering conflict that an abrupt and forced end would cause, he supported this idea that it could be gradually phased out. Even Lincolm occasionally supported that sort of thing, when he originally argued merely against allowing slavery in the new territories (and believing that the isolated South would eventually evolve economically to a point where slavery was no longer needed).
Jefferson, unfortunately, backed away from abolition in his later years, and I've heard many theories about that, regarding his debts or other reasons. Still, this didn't stop him from replying to Benjamin Benneker, a free African scientist, in 1791 while Secretary of State. Benneker had written asking that Jefferson use his influence to help ease the suffering of his brethren still under the yoke of slavery. Jefferson replied:
Sir,
I thank you, sincerely, for your letter of the 19th instant, and for the Almanac it contained. No body wishes more than I do, to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colors of men ; and that the appearance of the want of them, is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America. I can add with truth, that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced, for raising the condition, both of their body and mind, to what it ought to be, as far as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances, which cannot be neglected, will admit.
I have taken the liberty of sending your Almanac to Monsieur de Condozett, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and Member of the Philanthropic Society, because I considered it as a document, to which your whole color had a right for their justification, against the doubts which have been entertained of them.
I am with great esteem, Sir, Your most obedient Humble Servant,
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Now, this letter is nothing but a cop-out on Jefferson's part. He basically said: "Wow, man, I feel for you... but I'm not going to do anything." It's a shitty response.
But even a supposed racist as Jefferson could say something as apparently ground breaking as "blacks and whites are equal, and the only reason they look to be inferior is because we're not giving them equal access to the same education whites get". Conventional widsom would tell us that this is landmark, unheard of in its time, but even if we believe that Jefferson was just saying it to be nice in the midst of a letter that basically said: "Go screw yourself Banneker", other writings from the other founding fathers make it pretty clear that a great many of them did believe in equality of all men, regardless of skin color. Not all of them believed this, but many did, and even if we can't find those specific words you're asking for it's clear from the balance of their writings that they believed it very strongly, hence the fervor with which they fought slavery - even those framers who made the sad "lesser of two evils" Constitutional compromise to try and preserve the union.
So to answer your question from several comments back, the framers gave many indications that they believed black men and women were human beings. Some failed to live up to this expressed ideal. Others lived up to it but failed to enact the changes resisted by others within their own lifetime. But the belief was there, and is well documented.