As George Carlin once said,
"This country was founded by slave owners who wanted to be free."
And it is one of the bitter ironies of history,
that if the US had not become independent from Great Britain,
all slaves would have been free sooner,
since purchase or ownership of slaves would have been illegal,
in all British colonies from 1833 onward
with the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833.