Final answer:
The American Revolution fostered internal debates about slavery's compatibility with the new nation's ideals of liberty, leading to a gradual embrace of emancipation in the North while the South reinforced its commitment to slavery.
Step-by-step explanation:
The colonial independence movement sparked internal debates concerning the nature of freedom and the institution of slavery in the new nation. The ideology of the Revolution, centered on liberty and equality, stood in stark contrast to the practice of slavery. This dichotomy led to various positions among the colonists. Some, including Quakers and abolitionists like Benjamin Franklin, began to speak out against slavery, seeing it as incompatible with the Revolutionary ideals. In particular, black slaves like Felix used the language and ideas of the Revolution to petition for their own freedom, highlighting the irony that a nation fighting for its liberty maintained the brutal practice of human bondage. While the Northern states began to embrace gradual emancipation after the war, the Southern states