Slavery was legal in Philadelphia & New Jersey
during the Revolutionary War
Freedom for Whom?
Slavery vs Colonists under British Rule
Quakers and and other abolitionists recognized the irony that colonists were demanding freedom while denying it to others. Thomas Paine’s anonymous letter, "African Slavery in America," appeared in the Pennsylvania Magazine on in April 1775,:
“With what consistency, or decency they (Americans) complain so loudly of attempts to enslave them, while they hold so many hundred thousands in slavery; and annually enslave many thousands more, without any pretence of authority, or claim upon them?”
The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
For a century, the Declaration of Independence and “all men are created equal” didn’t apply to slaves. The hypocrisy continued. Excluding one group from “all men are created equal” was inhumane, savage, barbaric, and a complete atrocity.
The above purported letter appeared in the Essex Chronical, Friday, April 29, 1785, Page 2 (Essex England). There are so many layers of racism here, that I hardly know where to begin.