The late 18th Century brought about the American Revolution and the creation of the United States. While white revolutionaries founded the country on the tenets "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," many of them kept enslaved people as property. The Abolitionist movement grew, and several colonies (and later states) created legislation against the importation of enslaved people and gradually enacted emancipation laws.