Why did Jefferson eliminate criticism of the slave trade from the declaration of independence?

Among the many sections removed or rewritten was an antislavery passage, which began...

"He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither."

...and continued on to address the British proposal to free slaves and arm them to fight against their masters.

Thomas Jefferson reluctantly deleted the passage in an effort to gain as much unanimity as possible among the signers and in general against the Crown. He later remarked that if the signers thought the deletion might avoid offending any colonial supporters left in Britain, they were misguided.