Which 1777 constitution first prohibited slavery in a New World nation?

The Vermont Constitution of 1777 first prohibited slavery in a New World nation.

Adopted in July 1777 while Vermont operated as the independent Vermont Republic, the constitution declared that no person could be held as a slave after reaching specified ages. Its language applied to males after age 21 and females after age 18, making it an early constitutional ban on slavery in the Americas.

The document’s rights chapter also guaranteed liberties including freedom of religion, freedom of the press, property rights and protections for due process. Its wording echoed the Declaration of Independence’s language about natural and unalienable rights, linking Vermont’s experiment to the revolutionary era.

Historians distinguish Vermont’s constitutional prohibition from gradual-abolition laws adopted elsewhere. Pennsylvania’s 1780 law, for example, began gradual abolition but did not immediately end slavery. Vermont’s 1777 text therefore holds a special place in America250 discussions of founding ideals, even though Vermont did not join the United States until 1791.