About the time the young Marquis de Lafayette first came to America in 1777, the international movement that eventually brought an end to the institution of  slavery was just gathering steam.  Lafayette's own ardent opposition to slavery seems to have been an outgrowth of his experiences fighting for American liberty.  At some point, late in the American Revolution, he ceased to regard slaves as chattel, and embraced what was to become his lifelong commitment to equality for the "black part of mankind."  Throughout the rest of his long and eventful life, he continued to champion freedom for all men-black or white-everywhere.