During the 1770s, several US northern states ratified legislation freeing newborns to enslaved mothers. Yet the eighteenth-century emancipation legislation did not liberate any living slaves, but only the future offspring of bondswomen, in most cases only when they reached adult age. In March 1784, Rhode Island adopted an act that launched gradual emancipation. The children of enslaved women were to be freed: males upon reaching the age of 21 years, and females upon reaching the age of 18. Also in March 1784, Connecticut finally passed an act freeing the children of enslaved mothers born after the date of its passage and upon reaching 25 years of age. Eventually, an additional act passed in May 1797 reduced the age to 21 (Araújo, 2017, p. 51).  
In the northern states with large numbers of enslaved individuals, gradual abolition took even longer to be accomplished. New York passed legislation freeing the children born after the enactment of the law on 4 July 1799. Still, it determined that freed male children had to serve the owners of their mothers until 28 years old, and freed female children until 25 years of age (Berlin, 1998, p. 234; Gellman, 2008, p. 153; Harris, 2003, p. 11; Araújo, 2017, p. 51). In 1804, New Jersey finally enacted legislation freeing newborns to enslaved mothers. However, the act liberated only the children of enslaved mothers born after 4 July 1804, and established age restrictions: 25 years old for males and 21 years old for females (Gigantino, 2015, p. 117).