“All men are born free and equal,…” – Opening phrase, Part the First, A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth, in the 1780 Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, drafted by John Adams, which is the world’s oldest functioning written constitution. The phrase was used by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts to abolish slavery in the Commonwealth on July 8, 1783, before the Revolutionary War ended with the Treaty of Paris of September 3, 1783. [The abolition included female slaves.]
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