Philip Mazzei was a friend of Jefferson and purchased weapon for the Continental Army.

From wiki:

The contribution of Philip Mazzei to the Declaration of Independence was acknowledged by John F. Kennedy in his book A Nation of Immigrants, in which he states that:

The great doctrine 'All men are created equal and incorporated into the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, was paraphrased from the writing of Philip Mazzei, an Italian-born patriot and pamphleteer, who was a close friend of Jefferson. A few alleged scholars try to discredit Mazzei as the creator of this statement and idea, saying that "there is no mention of it anywhere until after the Declaration was published". This phrase appears in Italian in Mazzei's own hand, written in Italian, several years prior to the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Mazzei and Jefferson often exchanged ideas about true liberty and freedom. No one man can take complete credit for the ideals of American democracy.

This when the blacks was in chains and the redskins with bow and arrows was hunting the buffalos.