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Penn first? The case for Vermont Information

"1780, was the first attempt by a government in the Western Hemisphere to begin an abolition of slavery"

This article's first sentence is incorrect in several ways. The word "attempt" is ambiguous enough to refer to efforts from anti-slavery campaigns that tried to pass anti-slavery legislation before 1780 in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in principally, but in other colonies/states too. To say that Penn's 1780 was the "first attempt" simply ignores what others have been "attempting" before.

Secondly, if we are going to refer to something more than "attempt," say, "passing a legislation" or a ruling that would effectively eliminate slavery, then the vote goes for Vermont hands down.

This sentence does have a footnote referring to Vermont, but it seems it was placed there in a hurry to patch this oversight. It says that Vermont's constitution "did not free [sic] anyone." But this was actually Pennsylvania's case, as in this very article says: "it also respected the property rights of PA slaveholders by not freeing slaves already held in the state."

The Vermont's constitution, on the other hand is pivotal for many reasons. It is the "first" one to explicitly rule out slavery from the state. Secondly, it did it clearly on terms of universal human rights, which was the basis for the American Revolution, and thus, was a catalyst for other attempts (particularly in the northern states. And the constitution did actually free enslaved people in Vermont.

David Harper has it correct on his elaborate page: http://www.slavenorth.com/vermont.htm

The Vermont case was not clean, like all other cases, but it was a real "first."

I was thinking about adding a new section to this page on the Soft Answer that was published in a abolitionist paper on how to gradually abolish slavery. Should I do this? Thathallkid ( talk) 15:48, 5 December 2013 (UTC) reply

Patricia Bradley also provides some context: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s66/sh/eedc1d43-5717-4b21-8a6d-67b3cfa76f39/a0db671ed7b876567b7525915c66ad77

So, I suggest that we rewrite the first sentence. Historian 11:03, 19 August 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dennishidalgo ( talk • contribs)

Murdering Slaves? Information

This article states, "However upon finding the remains of slaves buried among the remains of the slave quarters it is evident that the President killed the slaves to avoid manumission. Upon finding this, renovation of the site has since been aborted." There is nothing in the cited article to suggest that slaves were murdered, nor does the article cited supported the idea that the renovation has been aborted (let alone on the basis of such a finding). I suggest that the sentence either be supported (which seems unlikely) or be deleted. Archivist 09:10, 06 May 2015. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.59.140.245 ( talk)

What law was it in 1847 that freed them? Solri89 ( talk) 16:11, 21 November 2015 (UTC) reply

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