Subject: Re: Here's one for the ATHEIST board
Our rights are granted by the government which as authority over us.

There are lots of different definitions of what a "right" is. You're using a very formalistic term - rights are the entitlements that a particular governmental system protects. Many people (including Dope) use the term to encompass inherent entitlements that all humans have, and which it is always wrong for a government to deny to a people.

In the latter definition, a government that permits slavery is depriving the slaves of their human rights. The government isn't violating any rights that the government granted - by definition, the laws of that society allow one group to enslave another. Yet we still describe that as a violation of the slaves' human rights, because slavery is always and everywhere a deprivation of the rights of the enslaved, regardless of whether the slavery is legal or prohibited.

The Founders used "inalienable rights" in this latter sense as well. They weren't being deprived of any rights defined by the British government. Instead, they were claiming the existence of rights outside of the formal British system, and because the British were violating those rights, rebellion was justified.