Simone Lawson
The original US Constitution, ratified in 1787, did not make slavery illegal. In fact, it included several clauses that protected and perpetuated the institution of slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Clause, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation, and the Fugitive Slave Clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years. While some members of the Constitutional Convention objected to slavery, others argued that it was necessary for economic reasons, and many Southern delegates threatened to walk out of the Constitution if slavery was threatened. It wasn't until the 13th Amendment, passed in 1865 after the Civil War, that slavery was officially abolished in the United States.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Did they try to make slavery illegal? | No, the Constitution prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years. |
| What was the compromise? | The Three-Fifths Compromise, the fugitive slave clause, and the slave insurrections. |
| Who was in favour of abolishing slavery? | Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, Oliver Ellsworth, Gouverneur Morris of New York, and others. |
| Who was against it? | John Rutledge of South Carolina, General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, and others. |
| What was the impact of the Constitution on slavery? | The Constitution gave protections to slavery, including the Three-Fifths Clause, which gave the South extra representation in the House. |
| When was slavery abolished? | Slavery was officially abolished in all states in December 1865 with the 13th Amendment. |
| What was the impact of the 13th Amendment? | It made the entire pre-war system of chattel slavery in the U.S. illegal. |
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What You'll Learn
The Founding Fathers' beliefs
However, they also had to contend with the reality that slavery was deeply entrenched in American society at the time. Most of the Founding Fathers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, were born into a slaveholding society and owned slaves themselves. They were aware of the immorality of slavery and the need for action, but their simultaneous commitment to private property rights, principles of limited government, and intersectional harmony prevented them from taking bolder action. Additionally, the considerable investment of Southern Founders in slave-based staple agriculture and their deep-seated racial prejudice posed significant obstacles to emancipation.
Some Founding Fathers, such as Gouverneur Morris and George Mason, were vocal opponents of slavery. Morris, a founder of the New York Manumission Society, called slavery a "nefarious institution" and "the curse of heaven on the States where it prevailed." Mason, who owned hundreds of slaves, spoke out against slavery, arguing that it "discourages arts and manufactures" and corrupts slaveholders. He believed that slavery threatened the country with divine punishment, saying, "Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven on a country."
Despite their misgivings, the Founding Fathers ultimately chose to sidestep the issue of slavery in the Constitution to maintain unity and secure the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. They consciously avoided using the words "slave" or "slavery" in the document, but important protections for slavery were included, such as the Three-Fifths Clause, the fugitive slave clause, and the ban on Congress ending the slave trade for twenty years. These compromises laid the foundation for future conflicts and tragic events related to slavery.
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The Three-Fifths Compromise
Slaveholding states wanted their entire population to be counted to determine the number of Representatives those states could elect and send to Congress. Free states wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, since those slaves had no voting rights. A compromise was struck to resolve this impasse. The compromise counted three-fifths of each state's slave population toward that state's total population for the purpose of apportioning the House of Representatives, effectively giving the Southern states more power in the House relative to the Northern states. This agreement came to be known as the Three-Fifths Compromise:
> 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 ratio was proposed by James Madison and originated with an amendment proposed to the Articles of Confederation on April 18, 1783. The amendment was to change the basis for determining the wealth of each state, and hence its tax obligations, from real estate to population, as a measure of ability to produce wealth.
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Fugitive Slave Clause
The Fugitive Slave Clause, also known as the Slave Clause or the Fugitives From Labour Clause, is Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution. The clause was adopted at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It requires a "person held to Service or Labour" (usually a slave, apprentice, or indentured servant) who flees to another state to be returned to their master in the state from which they escaped. The clause states:
> 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 Fugitive Slave Clause effectively gave enslavers the right to seize enslaved people who escaped to free states. The Supreme Court interpreted the Fugitive Slave Clause as giving the owner of an enslaved person the same right to seize and repossess them in another state as the local laws of their own state granted to them. It also stated that state laws that penalised such a seizure were unconstitutional.
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which was strengthened in 1850, enforced the Fugitive Slave Clause. The Act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state, and made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was effectively nullified by the Thirteenth Amendment's abolition of slavery, except as a punishment for criminal acts.
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Abolitionist movement
The abolitionist movement was an organised effort to end the practice of slavery in the United States. The campaign, which took place from about 1830 to 1870, was led by influential figures such as William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Dwight Weld, and Angelina Grimké. The movement sought the immediate and full emancipation of all enslaved people, and it grew in strength in the North, exacerbating tensions between the North and South.
The abolitionist movement in the US was inspired by the tactics of British abolitionists who had successfully ended slavery in Great Britain in the 1830s. The American movement began as a more organised, radical, and immediate effort than earlier campaigns, with its roots in the religious movement known as the Second Great Awakening. This Protestant revival encouraged the idea that all men are created equal in the eyes of God. The movement started in states like New York and Massachusetts and quickly spread to other Northern states.
Abolitionists saw slavery as an abomination and an affliction on the United States, and they worked tirelessly to eradicate slave ownership. They sent petitions to Congress, ran for political office, and distributed anti-slavery literature in the South. The movement was controversial and divisive, often leading to heated debates and even violent confrontations. The divisiveness fuelled by the movement, along with other factors, eventually led to the Civil War and the end of slavery in America.
The specific clauses of the Constitution related to slavery included the Three-Fifths Clause, which gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College, and the fugitive slave clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years. While the Constitution did not use the word "slave" or "slavery", it provided important protections for the institution of slavery.
The abolitionist movement played a crucial role in the eventual abolition of slavery in the United States, with the Thirteenth Amendment making the entire pre-war system of chattel slavery in the US illegal.
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The 13th Amendment
Despite the immorality of slavery, the Founding Fathers were aware of the need to address it, but they struggled to find a solution. Many of them believed that slavery was a "violation of the laws of nature" and "wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically." However, they also recognised that it was an "evil they knew not well how to deal with." As a result, the Constitution only obliquely referred to slavery, and the word "slave" was consciously avoided.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, an abolitionist movement gained strength in the North, calling for an immediate end to slavery nationwide. Proposals to eliminate slavery through a constitutional amendment were introduced as early as 1818 and 1839 but failed to gain traction. During the Civil War, President Lincoln issued several proclamations and proposals to end slavery, but it was the 13th Amendment that ultimately abolished it.
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Frequently asked questions
No, the US Constitution did not make slavery illegal. In fact, it included several clauses that protected and perpetuated the institution of slavery. These included the Three-Fifths Clause, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation, thereby 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 20 years and included a fugitive slave clause that required the return of runaway slaves to their owners.
While no delegates to the Constitutional Convention defended the morality of slavery, there were some who spoke against the institution. For example, George Mason, a Virginia delegate who owned hundreds of slaves, criticised slavery, saying it made slaveholders "petty tyrants" and would bring "the judgment of heaven on a country". Gouverneur Morris of New York called it a "nefarious institution, the curse of heaven on the states where it prevailed". However, even those who spoke against slavery did not propose making it illegal in the Constitution, recognising that this was neither the time nor the place for that fight.
Slavery was eventually abolished in the US through the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865. The 13th Amendment states that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime... shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction".
