1775 - 1784 -The Atlantic slave trade banned or suspended during the American Revolutionary War by the 13 North American colonies

During the American Revolutionary War the overall policy of refusing to import anything from Britain, was a strategic attempt to cut all economic ties with Britain during the war rather than address the abolition of slavery.

However at the beginning of this period, in 1775, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society formed in Philadelphia, the first abolition society within the territory that is now the United States of America. 


This was followed by the Constitution of the Vermont Republic that partially banned slavery in 1777, freeing men over 21 and women older than 18 at the time of its passage, although this ban was not strongly enforced. 

An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery was passed by the Pennsylvania law makers in 1780, freeing future children of slaves. However, those born prior to the Act remain enslaved for life. In Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that slavery was unconstitutional, a decision based on the 1780 Massachusetts constitution. All slaves were immediately freed. 

In 1783 gradual abolition of slavery begins in New Hampshire, followed in in 1784 by the gradual abolition of slavery in Connecticut, that saw the future children of slaves freed and later all slaves. Rhode Island began the gradual abolition of slavery in that same year of 1784.