A work, entitled, A Serious Address to the Rulers of
America on the Inconsistency of their Conduct respecting Slavery, forming a
Contrast between the Encroachments of England on American Liberty and
American Injustice in tolerating Slavery, which appeared in 1783, was
particularly instrumental in producing this effect. This excited a more
than usual attention to the case of these oppressed people, and where most
of all it could be useful. For the author compared in two opposite columns
the animated speeches and resolutions of the members of congress in behalf
of their own liberty with their conduct in continuing slavery to others.
Hence the legislature began to feel the inconsistency of the practice; and
so far had the sense of this inconsistency spread there, that when the
delegates met from each state, to consider of a federal union, there was a
desire that the abolition of the Slave-trade should be one of the articles
in it. This was, however, opposed by the delegates from North and South
Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia, the five states which had the
greatest concern in slaves.
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