The stories of the flags of Mexico and the republics of South America are so changing and unsettled that they may not be counted in the consideration, and the flag of Spain in Cuba never became an exponent of freedom. The sole competitor for the title of "the flag of the free" is the Stars and Stripes of the United States of North America.
The thirteen colonies of North America were, at the time of Lord Mansfield's decision in 1772, colonies of the British crown, and moved, no doubt, by a desire to emulate their brothers in Great Britain, and following their example, the representatives of the colonies met at Philadelphia, on 27th September, 1774, and in Continental Congress "declared against the slave-trade, and forbade any further importation of slaves into British America." Being supporters of the Union Jack, and following its ideals, they made, as Britons, a first step in the right direction, but no freedom was given to those already in the country.
It was, no doubt, under the influence of this spirit of British freedom, and with British hearts, that, when they were separating from their British allegiance, they stated in their Declaration of Independence (4th July, 1776):
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Yet at the very time when this claim was made, that all men were born equal, well-nigh a million blacks were held in these same States in bondage,[154] and this sounding declaration of "liberty" did not bring freedom to a single slave.
Indeed, when, eleven years afterwards, in 1787, the representatives of the thirteen States met[155] in federal convention, and adopted the "Constitution of the United States," the existence of slavery under the Stars and Stripes was recognized and its continuance guaranteed.
The framers of the constitution were evidently conscious of the fact that the statements of their "declaration" were not in actual accordance with their actions, and therefore the provisions in their "constitution" concerning slavery were stated in a veiled and secret form, the words "slave" and "slavery" being carefully excluded. In this way the clauses of the American constitution have a different interpretation from that which their wording would apparently convey, for the existence of one class of their population in slavery was duly recognized, although not specifically mentioned.
The leaven of English freedom evinced in 1774 had continued to work among some of the States, even after their separation from the Crown, and emancipation had been begun in Vermont in 1777, in Pennsylvania in 1780, and was impending in some of the others, but had by no means been accepted in all.[156]
In arranging the proportionate representation of the several States in the union congress it became necessary to apportion the number of members of congress to be elected by each State, and in arranging this representation a concession was made to the slave-owning States whereby their slaves were to be recognized in estimating the number of their population.