Before the Revolution.

Patrick Henry in 1773 admitted that he was baffled that slavery and religion could coexist since Christianity's "chief excellence consists in softening the human heart, in cherishing and improving its finer feelings . . . ." He also wondered how in Virginia, "a country above all other fond of liberty," men could maintain an institution "as repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible and destructive to liberty." Yet he owned slaves, saying "I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them, I will not, I cannot justify it." His proposed solution was simply the hope for some eventual emancipation. "Let us transmit to our descendants together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence for slavery."

Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson, also a slave owner, argued a case in a Virginia court in 1770 on behalf of a mulatto'whose mother...