sentences:  It is likely that revolutionary rhetoric about the rights of men, the close contact with young antislavery officers who served with Washingtonsuch as Laurens, the Marquis de Lafayette and Alexander Hamiltonand the influence of northern colleagues were contributory factors in that process.Washington was drawn into the postwar abolitionist discourse through his contacts with antislavery friends, their transatlantic network of leading abolitionists and the literature produced by the antislavery movement, though he was reluctant to volunteer his own opinion on the matter and generally did so only when the subject was first raised with him.At his death, Washington's extensive library included at least seventeen publications on slavery.