http://www.democracynow.org/2014/6/27/counter_revolution_of_1776_was_us
The so-called Revolutionary War, Gerald Horne writes, was in large part a counter-revolution, a conservative movement that the founding fathers fought in order to preserve their liberty to enslave others…
“London was moving rapidly towards abolition. This perception was prompted by Somerset’s case, a case decided in London in June 1772 which seemed to suggest that abolition, which not only was going to be ratified in London itself, was going to cross the Atlantic and basically sweep through the mainland, thereby jeopardizing numerous fortunes, not only based upon slavery, but the slave trade. That’s the short answer”:
http://nyupress.org/books/book-details.aspx?bookid=12075#.U6358rGtzMk