The Revolutionary War
The Revolutionary War contributed heavily to the end of slavery in northern society. When the British began to occupy some of the major areas in the North, there was an initial drop in the slave population. The presence of the British caused many people to flee and disperse throughout the North. As a result, many slaveholders abandoned their farms and, with them, their need for slave labor.
The British saw an opportunity to rally forces. They promised slaves freedom in return for their loyalty to the crown, as well as the promise that they would help win the war for England. Many abandoned slaves took the opportunity to participate in the war, and other slaves ran away to British lines with the hopes that their they would receive the freedom that the British generals promised. Because of the promise of freedom during the Revolutionary War, the fugitive slave population in Philadelphia nearly doubled.
Some of the Colonists, both black and white, saw the hypocrisy of fighting for freedom from the British while the whites continued to keep slaves. Many blacks preached their dissatisfaction with the double standard of whites passionately fighting for freedom while they continued to impede the rights of blacks. Many Northerners were persuaded by the blacks call for freedom, and took legislative action to end slavery in the North. The northern states took various legal approaches to end slavery. In Massachusetts and New Hampshire they abolished slavery by judicial decree, while other northern states adopted plans that promised a gradual end to slavery. The philosophy of the Revolutionary War brought about great advances for abolition in the North, and led many northern states to relinquish any forms of slavery that they held.