Opposition to the slave-trade and to slavery was an integral part of the evolution of the doctrine of equal rights.

As the colonists contended for their own freedom, they became anti-slavery in sentiment.

A standard complaint against British rule was the continued imposition of the slave-trade upon the colonists against their oft-repeated protest.
In the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, there appeared the following charges against the King of Great Britain: "He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.

This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain.

Determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce." Though this clause was omitted from the document as finally adopted, the evidence is abundant that the language expressed the prevailing sentiment of the country.