contestada

In this quotation, who are "they"?
Republicans
slaveholders
[T]he legislation and histories of the times,
and the language used in the Declaration of
Independence, show, that neither the class of
persons who had been imported as slaves, nor
their descendants, whether they had become
free or not, were then acknowledged as a part
of the people ... used in that memorable
instrument.
African Americans
DONE
from the Dred Scott decision, 1857
) Intro