The Founding Fathers were men of the Enlightenment whose revolutionary creed was all men are created equal. It does not require a great leap of logic to conclude from this statement that people should not own each other. At the time of the Revolution, there was already established a strong abolitionist movement, initiated mostly by Christians who took seriously the Sermon on the Mount. The Founding Fathers were indeed great men, but there were greater, morally superior men in their midst.