USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In 1776, slavery existed in all of the thirteen colonies (though apparently not in Vermont, which was then officially part of New York).

Detailed explanation-2: -Privately, one of Jefferson’s reasons for not freeing more slaves was his considerable debt, while his more public justification, expressed in his book Notes on the State of Virginia, was his fear that freeing enslaved people into American society would cause civil unrest between white people and former slaves.

Detailed explanation-3: -English reformers took the lead in this and were joined by Americans with varied motives. Some southerners feared slave revolts if importation continued. Religious societies stressed the moral evil of the trade, and free blacks saw the end of the slave trade as a first step toward general emancipation.

Detailed explanation-4: -Puritan New England, Virginia, Spanish Florida, and the Carolina colonies engaged in large-scale enslavement of Native Americans, often through the use of Indian proxies to wage war and acquire the slaves.