Simone Lawson
The topic of slavery and its relationship with the US Constitution has been a subject of debate and scrutiny. The Constitution, a document that protects the liberties of Americans, was drafted by 55 delegates, of whom about 25 to 17 owned slaves. This contradiction between the ideals of freedom and the reality of slavery has sparked discussions about the intentions and moral dilemmas faced by the framers. While some defended slavery, many had qualms and criticized the institution. The framers consciously avoided using the word slave, recognizing its negative connotations, and instead referred to slaves as persons. The Constitution included clauses that indirectly addressed slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Clause and the fugitive slave clause, reflecting the complex and contentious nature of the issue during that time.
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![Founding Fathers [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71f9-HsS5nL._AC_UY218_.jpg)
What You'll Learn
Many framers owned slaves
The US Constitution was a document created mainly by white men, many of whom owned slaves. Of the 55 delegates at the convention in Philadelphia, almost half of them owned slaves at some point in their lives. This included James Madison, Richard Bassett, John Blair, William Blount, Pierce Butler, Daniel Carroll, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Rutledge, Richard Dobbs Spaight, and George Washington.
The framers of the Constitution consciously avoided using the word "slave", recognising that it would sully the document. Instead, they referred to slaves as "persons". They believed that slavery was morally wrong and would eventually die out, and they did not want a permanent moral stain on the document. Despite this, the Constitution included several clauses that protected and perpetuated slavery. This 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. The Constitution also included a fugitive slave clause, requiring the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years.
Many of the framers had moral qualms about slavery and some, including Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton, became members of anti-slavery societies. However, few freed their slaves. The framers believed that concessions on slavery were necessary to gain the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. They knew that if the Constitution restricted the slave trade, South Carolina and Georgia would refuse to join the Union. As Luther Martin of Maryland, a slaveholder himself, said:
> It is inconsistent with the principles of the Revolution, and dishonorable to the American character to have such a feature in the constitution.
The framers of the Constitution were faced with a difficult choice. They knew that slavery was wrong, but they also knew that if they tried to end it, the Constitution would never have passed, and there would never have been a United States of America.
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The Constitution avoided using the word slave
The Constitution of the United States never used the word "slave" or "slavery" in its text. The framers of the Constitution consciously avoided the word, recognising that it would sully the document. They believed that slavery was morally wrong and would eventually die out, and they did not want that permanent moral stain on the document. Instead, they referred to slaves as "persons".
The framers were convinced that if the Constitution restricted the slave trade, South Carolina and Georgia would refuse to join the Union. By sidestepping the slavery issue, the framers left the seeds for future conflict. The framers were not protecting the slave trade with this clause but rather were seeking to end the infernal trade in humans. They believed that concessions on slavery were the price for the support of southern delegates for a strong central government.
The Constitution included four clauses that indirectly addressed slavery and the slave trade: the Three-Fifths Clause, the ban on Congress ending the slave trade for twenty years, the fugitive slave clause, and the slave insurrections. The Three-Fifths Clause 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. Thomas Jefferson would have lost the election of 1800 if not for the Three-Fifths Compromise. The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years. The fugitive slave clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and the slave insurrection clause gave the federal government the power to put down domestic rebellions, including slave insurrections.
The framers of the Constitution were embarrassed by the institution of slavery and hoped to create a regime of liberty that would lead to slavery's ultimate extinction. They did not want to suggest that such a thing as negro slavery had ever existed in the United States.
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The Three-Fifths Clause
The Three-Fifths Compromise was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention. It concerned the inclusion of slaves in a state's total population, which would determine the number of seats in the House of Representatives, the number of electoral votes each state would be allocated, and how much money the states would pay in taxes.
Slaveholding states wanted their entire population to be counted when determining the number of Representatives they could elect and send to Congress. Free states, on the other hand, wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, since those slaves had no voting rights. The Three-Fifths Compromise was a resolution to this dispute, counting three-fifths of each state's slave population toward that state's total population for the purpose of apportioning the House of Representatives. This effectively gave the Southern states more power in the House relative to the Northern states.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the US Constitution. It stated that "Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States...according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons...three-fifths of all other Persons". The three-fifths ratio was proposed by James Madison, who explained that slaves were "considered merely as property, and in no respect whatever as persons".
The Three-Fifths Compromise gave a disproportionate representation of slave states in the House of Representatives, and it has been argued that it gave greater power to the Southern states. However, Frederick Douglass believed that it encouraged freedom because it gave an increase of "two-fifths" of political power to free over slave states. The Compromise was repealed by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which provided for representatives to be apportioned by counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding untaxed Native Americans.
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The Fugitive Slave Clause
> No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.
The framers of the Constitution avoided using the words "slave" and "slavery" in the document, and the same is true of the Fugitive Slave Clause. This was because they believed that slavery was morally wrong and would eventually die out, and they did not want a moral stain on the document.
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The framers' moral qualms
The framers of the US Constitution recognised that slavery was against the values of the American Revolution. Many of them had moral qualms about the practice, but few freed their slaves. The word "slave" does not appear in the Constitution, as the framers consciously avoided it, recognising that it would sully the document. They believed that slavery was morally wrong and would eventually die out, and they did not want a permanent moral stain on the document.
The framers, therefore, built a regime of liberty that they hoped would lead to slavery's ultimate extinction. They also avoided the word "slave" and instead referred to slaves as persons. The Constitution had four clauses that indirectly addressed slavery and the slave trade, without using those terms. The framers were embarrassed by the institution of slavery and believed that concessions on slavery were the price for the support of southern delegates for a strong central government.
The specific clauses of the Constitution related to slavery were the Three-Fifths Clause, the ban on Congress ending the slave trade for twenty years, the fugitive slave clause, and the slave insurrection clause. The Three-Fifths Clause counted three-fifths of a state's slave population in apportioning representation, giving the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years, and it required the return of runaway slaves to their owners.
Some of the framers, including Benjamin Franklin (a former slaveholder) and Alexander Hamilton (born in a slave colony), became members of anti-slavery societies. James Madison, often referred to as the "Father of the Constitution", attacked slavery early in the Convention, stating:
> We have seen the mere distinction of colour made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man.
Another Virginian, George Mason, who owned hundreds of slaves, spoke out against slavery, saying:
> Slavery discourages arts and manufactures. The poor despise labour when performed by slaves.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, of the 55 delegates at the convention, about 25 owned slaves.
The three-fifths clause, the ban on Congress ending the slave trade for twenty years, the fugitive slave clause, and the slave insurrection clause.
The framers believed that concessions on slavery were necessary to gain the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. They also wanted to create a regime of liberty that would eventually lead to slavery's extinction.
No, most framers, even slave owners, believed that slavery was contrary to the values of the American Revolution. Many had moral qualms about slavery, and some became members of anti-slavery societies.
Yes, there was a bitter debate over slavery during the Constitutional Convention. However, they ultimately decided that addressing slavery would threaten the creation of the Union. They believed that slavery would eventually die out on its own.
