The Rhode Island gradual abolition law of 1784 most pointedly of all the emancipation laws announced that achievement to the world: “All Men are entitled to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,” it began, and “holding Mankind in a State of Slavery, as private Property, which has gradually obtained by unrestrained Custom and the Permission of the Laws, is repugnant to this Principle, and subversive of the Happiness of Mankind.”54 The words were galling to northern slaveholders. They were truly alarming further south. Nothing
