Isabella Carter
The original United States Constitution, drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788, did not contain the words slave or slavery within its text. However, it directly addressed American slavery in several provisions and implicitly protected the institution in other parts of the document. The Constitution's protection of slavery is considered its biggest flaw by many, including Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. This protection was a result of compromises made to gain the support of southern delegates, whose economies were dependent on slavery. These compromises, such as the Three-Fifths Clause and the Fugitive Slave Clause, entrenched slavery and contributed to the Civil War. It took a war and constitutional amendments, such as the 13th Amendment, to finally abolish slavery in the United States.
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What You'll Learn
The Constitution's language and euphemisms
The US Constitution, drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788, did not contain the words "slave" or "slavery" within its text. However, it did include provisions that directly and indirectly protected the institution of slavery. The Constitution's language and use of euphemisms reflected the framers' conflicted stance towards slavery and their attempt to avoid direct references to the institution.
The Constitution included several euphemisms and indirect references to slavery. For example, instead of using the word "slave," the framers used phrases like "persons held to service or labor." This reflected their attempt to sidestep moral confrontation while preserving the institution. The Three-Fifths Clause, which counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person in state populations for representation purposes, is another example of the Constitution's indirect language regarding slavery. This clause gave extra representation to states with a large slave population, such as those in the South.
The framers' decision to avoid direct language about slavery was influenced by their conflicting views on the institution. Some framers, like Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton, had moral qualms about slavery and were members of anti-slavery societies. However, they prioritized political unity over abolition, resulting in compromises that protected slaveholding interests. Additionally, the South's economic dependence on slavery made it politically impossible for the framers to abolish the institution outright.
The Constitution also included provisions that implicitly protected slavery. For example, Article I, Section 9 prohibited federal interference with the international slave trade for at least 20 years, and Article IV, Section 2, the Fugitive Slave Clause, required states to return escaped slaves to their owners. These measures ensured that slavery remained a national issue and embedded it deeper into the fabric of American governance.
The language and euphemisms used in the Constitution regarding slavery have been a point of contention throughout US history. While some, like abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, argued that the Constitution supported slavery, others, like the delegates who drafted the Fugitive Slave Clause, emphasized that it was a state institution and that the Constitution merely tolerated it. The Constitution's protection of slavery, however, contributed to a moral and legal crisis that would persist for decades and ultimately lead to the Civil War.
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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.
Notably, the words "slave" and "slavery" are not mentioned in this clause, which historian Donald Fehrenbacher attributes to an intent to make it clear that slavery existed only under state law, not federal law. The clause was a compromise between the Northern and Southern states, as by 1787, only Vermont and Massachusetts had outlawed or effectively outlawed slavery, while it was a way of life in the American South.
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The Three-Fifths Clause
The Three-Fifths Compromise was a result of the dispute between the slave-holding states and the free states. The slave-holding states wanted their entire population to be considered when determining the number of Representatives they could elect and send to Congress. On the other hand, the free states wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, as 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 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 U.S. Constitution, which 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 word "slave" was notably absent from the Constitution, with euphemisms like "persons held to service or labor" being used instead. This compromise gave the Southern states extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was controversial, with some arguing that it protected the institution of slavery. James Oakes, for example, claimed that the Three-Fifths Clause and the Fugitive Slave Clause were "the bricks and mortar of the proslavery Constitution." However, others argued that the compromise encouraged freedom by giving an increase in political power to free over slave states. The Three-Fifths Compromise was eventually superseded and explicitly repealed by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which provided for the apportionment of representatives based on the whole number of persons in each state, excluding untaxed Indians.
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The economic and political realities of slavery
The "slaves under the state" model illustrates how the economies of many societies were based on slave production, with institutionalized state coercion underpinning the system. Slavery played a crucial role in state-building and international order formation, with rulers utilizing slave soldiers and administrators to centralize power and strengthen their rule. The economic significance of slavery was also evident in the Fugitive Slave Laws, which required the return of slaves fleeing north. While the raw numbers of runaways reported in the 1850 and 1860 US Censuses were low, Franklin and Schweninger (1999), Hummel (2001, 2012), and Hummel and Weingast (2001, 2006) argued that these data were unreliable and underestimated the true scale of the issue.
The political implications of slavery were profound and far-reaching. The three-fifths clause in the Constitution, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation, gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. This clause, along with the Fugitive Slave Clause, protected slaveholding interests and entrenched slavery further. The framers of the Constitution deliberately avoided using explicit references to slavery, instead employing euphemisms such as "persons held to service or labor." Their conflicted stance on slavery led them to sidestep the issue, prioritizing political unity over immediate abolition.
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The Civil War and the 13th Amendment
The original US Constitution did not contain the words "slave" or "slavery" within its text. Still, it dealt directly with American slavery in at least five of its provisions and indirectly protected the institution elsewhere in the document. The word "slave" was consciously avoided by the framers, who recognised that it would sully the document.
The framers of the Constitution believed that concessions on slavery were the price for the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. They were convinced that if the Constitution restricted the slave trade, states like South Carolina and Georgia would refuse to join the Union. This belief was reflected in the Fugitive Slave Clause and the Three-Fifths Clause, which protected slaveholding interests.
The 13th Amendment, passed in Congress during the Civil War in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States. However, it did not address other fundamental questions about the status of newly freed African Americans. Were they citizens? Did they have the same rights as other Americans?
To answer these questions, Congress passed the 14th Amendment, which contained key provisions on the definition of citizenship, the protection of civil rights, and the power of the federal government. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, served a revolutionary purpose – to define African Americans as equal citizens under the law.
Together with the 14th and 15th Amendments, also ratified during the Reconstruction era, the 13th Amendment sought to establish equality for black Americans. Despite these efforts, the struggle to achieve full equality and guarantee the civil rights of all Americans has continued well into the 21st century.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, the original US Constitution protected the institution of slavery. While the words "slave" and "slavery" were not mentioned in the document, the Constitution dealt directly with American slavery in at least five of its provisions and indirectly protected the institution elsewhere. For example, Article 1, Section 9, prohibited Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808, and Article 5 prohibited this from being amended.
No, the US Constitution never abolished slavery. It took a Civil War and constitutional amendments to eliminate slavery. The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States.
The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, provided a legal basis for African Americans to challenge discrimination and demand equal rights and protections. The 15th Amendment, part of the trio of Civil War amendments, also expanded the civil rights of Americans.
