Status Updates From 1789: George Washington and...

Pennsylvania passed a law of gradual abolition in 1780, freeing slaves when they reached the age of twenty-eight. Massachusetts never formally abolished slavery, but in 1781 its State Supreme Court ruled that slavery was incompatible with the phrase 'All men are born free and equal' in its state constitution.

Delaware outlawed the importation of slaves in its 1776 constitution and in 1789 forbade slave ships to enter its ports, but [...] did little to abolish its homegrown slavery. In 177, Vermont, which did not enter the Union until 1791, amended its constitution to ban the enslavement of males age twenty-one and older and females eighteen and older; child slaves had to wait for freedom until their twenty-first birthday.

A slave bought in Africa for £4 to £6 could be sold at Jamaica for £50 to £55. That incredible ten-to-one profit margin was irresistible to investors. In 1764, Rhode Island Governor Stephen Hopkins [...] a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a slave owner. Nevertheless, he was able to write, 'Liberty is the greatest blessing that men enjoy, and slavery the heaviest curse that human nature is capable of.'