[DiogenesLamp]

At the time the Constitution of the United States was ratified and became our instrument of Government, slavery was legal in all 13 states.

Rare that I get a chance to correct you, but I believe Massachusetts abolished slavery (through activist court decrees) in the early 1780s.

I believe at the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, they were a "free" state.

At the time the Declaration of Independence was signed, all 13 states were slave states.

[Bull Snipe]

Thanks for setting me straight.