By the time of the Revolution both slavery and anti-slavery were firmly established in the English colonies. The slave trade con tinued steadily; and outside the Quakers and a few other reformers, there was little protest against it on moral grounds. Yet efforts were made to restrict it in some of the colonies; in the Northern, because they wished to raise a revenue from it; in South Carolina because they feared slave insurrections. Whatever the reason, all such colonial acts were regularly vetoed by the governor, or disallowed by the home government, on the ground that a trade so profitable to British merchants must not be diminished.
The main objection to slavery before the American Revolution was that it was contrary to Christianity; indeed for many years the planters objected to the efforts to evangelize their slaves, on the ground that a baptized slave might claim freedom as a Christian. Yet plant ers had their slaves, kept them, worked them, if they felt like it killed them with overwork, and ignored the philanthropists. The larger number of the negroes continued to be pagans in a Christian land.
The Revolution added a second argument of immense weight, namely, the rights of man. It is perfectly true that the framers of the Declaration of Independence, when they said that call men are created equal," had in mind men who were sharers in the government; but some negroes had the requisite property quali fications and were voters in all the colonies but two and thereafter in States both North and South. Still when the Revolutionary patriots so vehemently declared that they never would be slaves they could hardly have forgotton that about one-sixth of the community were actual slaves. The progress of the Revolution empha sized this contradiction, for large numbers of negroes were enlisted in the Continental Army, especially in the Northern States, where they sometimes served in regiments indiscriminately with white men. Rhode Island was obliged to promise freedom to slaves who joined the army and to liberate their families; and a dangerous rift was thus made in the system of slavery.
This rift was widened by the action of several States during and immediately after the Revolution. In 1775 an abolition society was formed in Pennsylvania under the presidency of Benjamin Franklin and similar societies fol lowed in the New England States. These or ganizations at once began to petition legisla tures to secure better treatment for slaves, and even to prohibit slavery altogether. The move ment rapidly gained headway in the Northern communities where slaves were few and vested property interests were small.
In 1777 the people of Vermont drew up a State constitution containing clauses °that all men are born free and independent," and that hence slaves should be set free at the age of majority. The next community to act was Pennsylvania, where under strong pressure from the abolitionists, 1 March 1780, an act was passed declaring that all persons thenceforward born within the State should be set free at 28, thus putting slavery in process of extinction.
Still more effective was the action of Massa chusetts which, in 1780, adopted a new con stitution, drafted by John Adams, the oppo nent of slavery. The bill of rights included the declaration all men are horn free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and in alienable rights, among.which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives." In 1783, in a test case, the Supreme Judicial Court held that under this clause there was no such thing as slavery in Massachusetts. The precedent thus set was followed by New Hamp shire in 1783, in a constitution similar to that of Massachusetts; and by gradual emancipa tion acts in Rhode Island and Connecticut in 1784. For a time the tide was stayed; then in 1799 New York, and in 1804 New Jersey, passed gradual emancipation acts. Thus, of the 16 States admitted to the Union before 1800, eight became free.
Meantime the national government had also taken important and far-reaching steps in regard to slavery. The First Continental Congress, to damage English.tride, drew up the Association of 1774, in which the colonists agreed not to import slaves; and this prohibition was main tained throughout the Revolution. Most of the States passed laws prohibiting the slave trade, so that when the Revolution was over there appear to have been no importations for a time.
The opposition of the Northern States to slavery was quickly reflected in Congress, where from 1775 to 1777 there were hot disputes on the question of assessing Federal taxes; the Northern States insisting that slaves ought to be counted either as a part of the population, or a part of the wealth of the South; the South insisting that slaves were not as productive as free men and that they ought not to reck oned at their full number. Upon the more serious question of territorial slavery the Con federation Congress took radical ground, for it became necessary to provide a government for the immense areas added to the United States both north and south of the Ohio River. In 1784 Jefferson reported an ordinance which included a clause that in all the new Territories, °after the year 1800 of the Christian mra there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude." For lack of one vote in one State this clause was rejected; but in 1787, in the Northwest Ordi nance, Congress applied to the Northwest Terri tory the prohibition which had failed three years before. Hence, when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 adjourned, slavery was pro hibited in the whole section of the country north of Maryland (except New York and New Jer sey), by action of the States; and from the Pennsylvania line westward to the Mississippi, by Congress.