In 1776, slavery was legal in all 13 colonies from New England to Georgia. Before the American Revolution, very few people questioned using violence to keep commoners in their place in society. Seventeenth century American colonists lived in a pre-modern world, meaning they feared witches, believed in religious compulsion, and upheld the savage repression of lower members of society. By the 1770s, a modern movement began. Educated people began to talk about natural rights, political liberty, freedom of religion, and equality before the law. This was the first-time literate Americans, beyond some Quaker communities, began to question if slavery was justifiable.

Though slavery began to be questioned in the 1770s, by that time the colonies had already built economic reliance on the labor of enslaved people. The New England and Middle States developed to be societies with slaves, while the Southern States had become slave societies. This means that in New England and the Middle States, enslaved people of African descent were forced into labor as domestic servants, farm hands, and factory laborers, but a large portion of the economy did not rely on enslaved labor. However, in the Southern States, large plantations relied heavily on the labor of enslaved people. Without this critical labour source, the economies of these states would collapse and require restructuring.