The last of these was then read more extensively in the colonies than in Great Britain.

Getting from these writers strange ideas of individual liberty and the social compact theory of man's making in a state of nature government deriving its power from the consent of the governed, the colonists contended more boldly than ever for religious freedom, industrial liberty, and political equality.
Given impetus by the diffusion of these ideas, the revolutionary movement became productive of the spirit of universal benevolence.
Hearing the contention for natural and inalienable rights, Nathaniel Appleton[1] and John Woolman,[2] were emboldened to carry these theories to their logical conclusion.

They attacked not only the oppressors of the colonists but censured also those who denied the Negro race freedom of body and freedom of mind.

When John Adams heard James Otis basing his argument against the writs of assistance on the British constitution "founded in the laws of nature," he "shuddered at the doctrine taught and the consequences that might be derived from such premises."[3] [Footnote 1: Locke, _Anti-slavery_, etc., p.

19, 20, 23.] [Footnote 2: _Works of John Woolman_ in two parts, pp.