British Government had forced several of the American Colonies to permit
slavery against their will, and only in 1769 it had vetoed, in the
interest of British trade, a Colonial enactment for suppressing the slave
trade. This was sincerely felt as a part, though a minor part, of the
grievance against the mother country. So far did such views prevail on
the surface that a Convention of all the Colonies in 1774 unanimously
voted that "the abolition of domestic slavery is the greatest object of
desire in those Colonies where it was unhappily introduced in their
infant state. But previous to the enfranchisement of the slaves in law,
it is necessary to exclude all further importation from Africa." It was
therefore very commonly assumed when, after an interval of war which
suspended such reforms, Independence was achieved, that slavery was a
doomed institution.

Those among the "fathers" whose names are best known in England,
Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, and Hamilton, were
all opponents of slavery. These include the first four Presidents, and
the leaders of very different schools of thought. Some of them,
Washington and Jefferson at least, had a few slaves of their own.
Washington's attitude to his slaves is illustrated by a letter which he
wrote to secure the return of a black attendant of Mrs. Washington's who
had run away (a thing which he had boasted could never occur in his
household); the runaway was to be brought back if she could be persuaded
to return; her master's legal power to compel her was not to be used.
She was in fact free, but had foolishly left a good place; and there is
no reason to suppose that it was otherwise with Jefferson's slaves.
Jefferson's theory was vehemently against slavery. In old age he gave up
hope in the matter and was more solicitous for union than for liberty,
but this was after the disappointment of many efforts. In these efforts
he had no illusory notion of equality; he wrote in 1791, when he had been