In 1819, Jefferson strongly opposed a Missouri statehood application amendment that banned domestic slave importation and freed slaves at the age of 25 on grounds it would destroy the union. Jefferson shared the 'common belief' of his day that Black people were mentally and physically inferior, but argued that they nonetheless had innate human rights. In "Notes on the State of Virginia", he created controversy by calling slavery a moral evil for which the nation would ultimately have to account to God. He therefore supported colonization plans that would transport freed slaves to another country, such as Liberia or Sierra Leone, though he recognized the impracticability of such proposals.