Gradual Abolition [of Slavery] Act of 1780 passed the Pennsylvania General Assembly

Very recommendable! More evidence that the American Civil War was not all about ending slavery, but about preventing secession! No civil war was needed as slavery was already being gradually abolished one step at time across Western countries for about a hundred years prior.

I have to give credit to this very recommendable article, which pointed me to this article: Uniquely Bad—But Not Uniquely American | City Journal

Long before William Wilberforce in Great Britain succeeded, the early American citizens were already phasing out slavery! 

"Between 1781 and 1783, Massachusetts set a precedent for immediate emancipation in the wake of three court cases centered on Quock Walker, an enslaved man who sued for freedom under the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780"

"In September 1786, George Washington expressed his support of gradual abolition in a letter to John Francis Mercer. "

Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 · George Washington's Mount Vernon The Gradual Abolition Act of 1780, the first extensive abolition legislation in the western hemisphere, passed the Pennsylvania General Assembly on March 1, 1780. To appease slave owners, the act gradually emancipated enslaved people without making slavery immediately illegal.