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That is an interesting concept that you are trying to develop.

In the above article, you can see that in the 1700s, slavery was growing in coastal cities of the North and South about evenly.

That was a function of labor demand and cost.

But to attempt to draw a moral conclusion about relative numbers freed from the "first" states to outlaw slaves would be quite a stretch in logic.

It is clear that sales of slaves continued until the 1860s. As the value of slaves began to increase, it is likely that more were sold South than were released in the North, with economics and demand being the determinants. Census counts of the period probably confirm this.

Of course in saying that, I sound more like our good friend x than I do myself.

In so far regarding morality, I think that resistance to slave ownership as a part of period morality discussion should include Jefferson, Madison, Oglethorpe, as well as generations of Southerners who rejected slavery.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the morality of the hundreds of Boston, Newport, New York, and Philadelphia owned and outfitted slavers that continued in the practice of transporting slaves until the Civil War put an end to their lucrative business.

You are quite correct that northern and southern attitudes towards the morality of slavery were similar among the Founders from both north and south. They viewed it an evil that would hopefully disappear gradually for economic reasons as it became less profitable. This consensus continued into the early decades of the 19th century.

Thereafter, as slavery became less and less profitable in northern states, it was gradually abolished. Its profitability in southern states grew, and attitudes towards the institution diverged. More and more northerners began to think of the institution as a great moral wrong, while many southerners began to search for ways (or rationalizations, depending on your point of view) to defend it, first as an unavoidable necessity and then as a moral good.

By 1860 attitudes were polarizing, as can be seen by the stark contrast between the ideologies in the famous "Cornerstone Speech" and in Lincoln's speeches on the subject.

The consensus in much or most of the South was that slavery was a positive good. In most of the North, people disagreed on what lengths should be gone to to get rid of the institution, but very few defended it as being a good thing. Increasing numbers were dedicated to its destruction "by whatever means necessary."

No wonder we had a war!