Slavery And The Republic

Quote I found:

"But things went from bad to worse during an appearance Monday on Good Morning America, when interviewer George Stephanopoulos questioned her insistance that “the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly until to end slavery in America,” a statement Bachmann made on January 21, 2011.
“Now with respect, Congresswoman, that’s just not true,” Stephanopoulos said. “Many of them including Jefferson and Washington were actually slave holders and slavery didn’t end until the Civil War.”

The last sentence is unfair and wildly simplistic. Because they owned them doesn't mean they didn't want to eradicate it.

As I understand it, while it's true they owned slaves, it was a hotly debated topic (if not, the single most important topic) with the Founding Fathers acknowledging the evils of the institution. The fact it ended at the end of the civil war doesn't mean they chose to overlook it. 

Ending slavery wasn't a simple thing to do. Indeed, reading DuBois, one learns quickly just how incredibly messy an event it was in the aftermath. Being "free" is one thing. Living, and succeeding debt free and with dignity was quite another and didn't reach its apex until the Civil Rights movement. The pace of it makes perfect sense; and it all began with the Revolutionary War.