Peter Stone's movie titled 1776 tells the story of the American founding fathers and the process of creating, and signing the Declaration of Independence to free them from Britain. The declaration was vastly approved by everyone, especially the Northern colonies. However, there was one bump in the road that the Souther states could not get over, the Slavery Clause. The Slavery Clause would result in the abolition of slavery, and many representatives of the Souther Colonies, including Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, would not pass the bill until the Clause was removed. After some time debating a founding father by the name of Benjamin Franklin says the words, "It's a luxury we can't afford." The Declaration of Independence was all around accepted by the 13 colonies, but upon further examination the southern colonies found a act in it that they strongly disagreed with, the Slavery Clause. This act would abolish slavery throughout the entire country. At the time the southern colonies were slave societies. Large plantations were constantly growing and harvesting crops to be sold on international markets, and used to feed families. These plantations were run by whites, and their main work force were black slaves. If the Slavery Clause was put into place in the Declaration of Independence all of the plantations in the South…show more content… Franklin took it upon himself to convince the northern representatives would wanted the Clause to remove it. As he said to John Adams, "It's a luxury we can't afford.". Franklin tried as hard as he could to have the other representatives see that it would be a luxury, but they can not afford the loss of the southern colonies from the union. The death of the Slavery Clause came as Thomas Jefferson walked to the Declaration and crossed the act out, and at that moment Rutledge changed his vote to