Sentence:  New Englanders were a bit sensitive on the subject of their complicity in Negro slavery at the time of the drafting of the Declaration of Independence , as Jefferson explained in his `` Autobiography '' : `` The clause reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia , who had never <WSD>attempted</WSD> to restrain the importation of slaves , and who on the contrary still wished to continue it . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  make an effort or attempt