The slave population of Rhode Island by 1774 is six point three percent, nearly twice as high as any other New England colony.

Stephen Hopkins, while serving in the Rhode Island Assembly in 1774, introduces a bill that prohibits the importation of slaves into the colony.

This is to become one of the first anti-slavery laws in the new United States.

There are several pressures occurring in the colony which lead to greater restrictions on the slave trade, the greatest of which is the pressure applied by the Quakers, who comprise a large percentage of Rhode Island's population.

Hopkins' second wife is a Quaker, and as a consequence he has become an active follower of this faith.

Admonition from the Quakers is likely a compelling reason for Hopkins to begin freeing his slaves and introduce his antislavery bill.

Other forces acting against this institution include the influence of the Congregationalist minister, Samuel Hopkins, and the poor profit margin derived from the trade in New England.

Samuel Hopkins, originally a slaveholder, was one of the first of the Congregationalist ministers to denounce slavery.

He has created the theological scheme that bears his name, Hopkinsianism, also known as the New Divinity.

This religious system is a form of Calvinism which its adherents called "consistent Calvinism."

Hopkins is credited with originating the concept of "disinterested benevolence".

The view will evolve into a distinct theology under Nathaniel W. Taylor, a later instructor of theology at Yale Divinity School, known as the "New Haven Theology" or New England theology, which will become important in the Second Great Awakening.