Malcolm Rivera
The original US Constitution did not grant political equality to Black Americans. While the document does not mention color, race, or slavery, the infamous three-fifths clause counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation, giving Southern states with a large slave population extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. The Constitution also failed to protect the rights of Black citizens and did not include a guarantee against racial discrimination in voting laws. This was addressed with the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, which prohibited denying or abridging a citizen's right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Were any Black people signatories of the US Constitution? | No, there is no primary source or DNA evidence to suggest that any Black people signed the US Constitution. |
| Were any signatories of the US Constitution not white? | No, based on surviving evidence, all the people who signed the US Constitution were white and male. |
| Was Alexander Hamilton Black? | There is no primary source or DNA evidence to suggest that Alexander Hamilton was Black, but some claim that he may have been of mixed race. |
| Did the US Constitution mention race or slavery? | No, the US Constitution did not mention race or slavery, and the word "slave" does not appear in the document. |
| Did the US Constitution treat Black people as less than human? | Some critics claim that the US Constitution treated Black people as less than human, but others argue that this interpretation stems from a misreading of the document. |
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What You'll Learn
No Black people signed the US Constitution
The Constitution included the notorious three-fifths clause, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population in apportioning representation. This gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. The struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces for control of Congress was a major cause of the Civil War.
The framers of the Constitution believed that concessions on slavery were necessary to gain the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. They were convinced that if the Constitution restricted the slave trade, southern states like South Carolina and Georgia would refuse to join the Union. By avoiding the issue of slavery, the framers sowed the seeds for future conflict. Many of the framers, including Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton, had moral qualms about slavery and became members of anti-slavery societies.
It is worth noting that there have been claims that Alexander Hamilton, a founding father, may have been black or at least of mixed race. However, there is no conclusive historical or DNA evidence to support these claims.
It wasn't until the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, passed by Congress on February 26, 1869, and ratified on February 3, 1870, that African American men were granted the right to vote. This amendment was seen as a fulfillment of promises made to African Americans, marking a step forward in their long struggle for equality.
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The Constitution did not mention race, colour or slavery
The US Constitution did not mention race, colour, or slavery. While the document did not refer to "slaves" by name, it also did not refer to "blacks" or "whites". Instead, it used the term “persons". The Constitution's framers consciously avoided the word "slave", recognising that it would sully the document.
The omission of any mention of race or slavery in the Constitution was not because the authors believed in racial equality. Rather, they anxiously sought to avoid the admission of expressions which might be odious in the ears of Americans. The authors of the Constitution were aware that the issue of slavery was a contentious one, and some historians argue that by sidestepping the issue, they laid the seeds for future conflict. Indeed, the struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces for control of Congress was the major cause of the Civil War.
The Constitution did, however, include the Three-Fifths Clause, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population in apportioning representation. This gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. The inclusion of this clause was not about the human worth of black people but about voting power in Congress. Northern delegates did not want black slaves included, not because they thought them unworthy of being counted, but because they wanted to weaken the slaveholding power in Congress.
The original Constitution also did not secure the right of women to vote or provide protection for religious freedom. Amendments were later made to the Constitution to address some of these issues. For example, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Nineteenth Amendment secured the right of women to vote, and the First Amendment protected religious freedom. In addition, the Fifteenth Amendment granted African American men the right to vote, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted citizenship to all people born in the United States, regardless of race or colour.
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The Constitution's three-fifths clause was about voting power
The Three-Fifths Compromise was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention. It was a compromise between slave-holding states, which wanted their entire population to be counted to determine the number of Representatives they could send to Congress, and free states, which wanted to exclude the counting of slaves in slave states, as those slaves had no voting rights. The Three-Fifths Compromise counted three-fifths of each state's slave population towards that state's total population for the purpose of apportioning the House of Representatives. This gave Southern states more power in the House relative to the Northern states.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was about voting power, not the humanity of slaves. Northern delegates did not want black slaves included, not because they thought slaves were unworthy of being counted, but because they wanted to weaken the slaveholding power in Congress. Southern delegates wanted every slave to count equally with whites, not because they wanted to proclaim that slaves were human beings on an equal footing with free white persons, but because they wanted to increase the pro-slavery voting power in Congress.
The Three-Fifths Compromise is part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution:
> Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other Persons.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was not the only contentious issue during the drafting of the US Constitution. The Constitution did not originally secure the right of women to vote, provide protection for religious freedom, or grant political equality to members of different religious groups. There is also debate over whether any Black people were involved in drafting the Constitution. While some have claimed that Alexander Hamilton may have been Black or of mixed race, there is no known primary source or DNA evidence to support this.
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The Constitution did not protect religious freedom
While the Constitution holds profound human value and treats religion as something special and important, it is a common misconception that the original document protected religious freedom. The original Constitution did not secure the right of women to vote, permitted slavery, and did not provide protection for religious freedom.
The First Amendment to the Constitution refers to "the free exercise of religion," which includes the freedom to act on one's religious beliefs in both private and public life. This freedom allows people to bring their religiously informed moral judgments into the public square, where they can debate public policy matters with their fellow citizens on equal terms. However, this amendment was not part of the original Constitution.
The original Constitution lacked explicit protections for religious freedom, and the free exercise of religion was often limited to churches or synagogues. While provisions for religious freedom were prevalent in state constitutions, political equality for members of different religious groups was rare. For example, Delaware required state officers to swear a Trinitarian oath, while Georgia required them to be of the Protestant religion. Maryland demanded a belief "in the Christian religion," excluding Jews and non-believers. New York discriminated against Catholics but allowed Jews to hold office.
The struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces for control of Congress, which began during the Constitutional Convention, was a significant factor in the Civil War. The "three-fifths clause" in the original Constitution was not about the human worth of Blacks but about voting power in Congress. The absence of any mention of color, race, or slavery in the original document is notable, and the authors intentionally avoided using the word "slave" to maintain their stance of avoiding expressions that might be offensive to Americans.
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The 15th Amendment granted Black men the right to vote
The US Constitution did not initially grant voting rights to Black men, and until 1870, only white men were allowed to vote. The 15th Amendment, passed by Congress on February 26, 1869, and ratified on February 3, 1870, changed this by granting African-American men the right to vote. This amendment states that the right of US citizens to vote shall not be "denied or abridged" by the US or any state based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".
The 15th Amendment was a significant step forward during the Reconstruction Era, a period following the Civil War when the progressive wing of the Republican Party dominated Congress. During this time, African-American men not only gained the right to vote but also won several seats in Congress. Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce, representing the state of Mississippi, became the first African-Americans to be elected to the US Senate.
Despite the progress brought about by the 15th Amendment, African-Americans continued to face obstacles to exercising their voting rights. In former Confederate states, voting rights for Black men were restricted by courts, state and local laws, poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, and fraud. The "grandfather clause" was also used to disenfranchise African-American men by restricting voting rights to those who had been allowed to vote before 1867, effectively excluding Black men who had not been allowed to vote prior to the 15th Amendment.
Further efforts were made to address these injustices and secure voting rights for African-Americans. The Twenty-fourth Amendment, ratified in 1964, prohibited the use of poll taxes in federal elections, while the Voting Rights Act of 1965, extended in 1970, 1975, and 1982, enforced the amendments by abolishing remaining deterrents to voting and authorizing federal supervision of voter registration where necessary.
It is worth noting that while the 15th Amendment granted voting rights to Black men, the struggle for women's suffrage continued, with the 19th Amendment eventually securing the right of women to vote.
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Frequently asked questions
No, there is no evidence to suggest that any Black people signed the US Constitution.
The US Constitution did not mention colour, race, or slavery, and referred to slaves only as "persons". The word "slave" was consciously avoided by the framers of the Constitution, who recognised that it would sully the document.
Alexander Hamilton, who was born in a slave colony in the British West Indies, was a member of anti-slavery societies and may have been Black or at least of mixed race.
The US Constitution included the three-fifths clause, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation, giving the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College.
