Malcolm Rivera
The American Constitution has been described as the biggest flaw in US history due to its protection of slavery and promotion of slave ownership. The Constitution's text contains several proslavery clauses, including the Apportionment Clause, which added three-fifths of all other Persons (i.e. slaves) to the number of free inhabitants of a state for purposes of representation. It also prohibited Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808 and contained the fugitive slave clause, which required that escaped slaves be returned to their owners. It took a Civil War and constitutional amendments, such as the Thirteenth Amendment, to eliminate slavery.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Article 1, Section 9 | Prohibits Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808 |
| Article 5 | Prohibits the above from being amended |
| Article 1, Section 2 | Provides that, for purposes of representation in Congress, enslaved black people in a state would be counted as three-fifths of the number of white inhabitants of that state |
| Article 4, Section 2 | Contains the “fugitive slave clause,” which required that an escaped slave be returned to his or her owner |
| 14th Amendment | Adopted in 1868, after the Civil War, added the assurance of equal protection |
| 19th Amendment | Adopted in 1920, gave women the right to vote |
| 13th Amendment | Forbids any kind of slavery |
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What You'll Learn
The Constitution's text contains several proslavery clauses
The Constitution’s text contains several proslavery clauses. The Apportionment Clause, Article I, Section 2, added three-fifths of “all other Persons” ‒ slaves ‒ to the number of free inhabitants of a state for purposes of representation. This meant that enslaved black people in a state would be counted as three-fifths of the number of white inhabitants of that state. Article 4, Section 2, contains the “fugitive slave clause,” which required that an escaped slave be returned to his or her owner. Article 1, Section 9, prohibits Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808, and Article 5 prohibited this from being amended.
Many contemporary historians conclude that the American Constitution is a proslavery document. Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky wrote that the Constitution’s “biggest flaw” is its protection of the institution of slavery. The Constitution was intentionally written in broad, open-textured language. It took a Civil War and constitutional amendments to eliminate slavery.
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The Apportionment Clause
The Constitution's protection of slavery was its "biggest flaw", according to Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. The Constitution was intentionally written in broad, open-textured language, leaving it to each generation to interpret its meaning. However, the failure to explicitly mention equality in the preamble is perhaps less surprising when we consider that the Constitution protected only the rights of white men. Women, for example, were not given the right to vote until 1920.
It took a Civil War and constitutional amendments to eliminate slavery. The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868 after the Civil War, added the assurance of equal protection.
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Article 1, Section 2
The Constitution’s text contains several proslavery clauses. Article 1, Section 9, prohibits Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808, and Article 5 prohibited this from being amended. Article 4, Section 2, contains the “fugitive slave clause,” which required that an escaped slave be returned to his or her owner.
The Constitution was intentionally written in broad, open-textured language. It leaves it to each generation to give meaning to these words. Most contemporary historians conclude that the American Constitution is a proslavery document. However, when speaking with historians about teaching constitutional law, they are often shocked that law professors typically do not teach the Constitution as proslavery.
The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution forbids any kind of slavery. It states that if other rights are assailed by the States which properly and necessarily fall within the protection of these articles, that protection will apply, though the party interested may not be of African descent.
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Article 4, Section 2, contains the “fugitive slave clause
Article 1, Section 9, prohibited Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808, and Article 5 prohibited this from being amended. Article 1, Section 2, provided that, for purposes of representation in Congress, enslaved black people in a state would be counted as three-fifths of the number of white inhabitants of that state.
The Constitution’s text contains several proslavery clauses. The Apportionment Clause, Article I, Section 2, added three-fifths of “all other Persons” ‒ slaves ‒ to the number of free inhabitants of a state for purposes of representation. This was known as the three-fifths compromise.
The Constitution was intentionally written in broad, open-textured language. It was a proslavery document that institutionalised slavery and only protected the rights of white men. It took a Civil War and constitutional amendments to eliminate slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment, proposed after the Civil War, forbids any kind of slavery.
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The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution forbids any kind of slavery
The Thirteenth Amendment was proposed to remedy this evil. It was adopted after the Civil War, along with the Fourteenth Amendment, which assured equal protection. The Thirteenth Amendment forbids any kind of slavery, now or hereafter. If Mexican peonage or the Chinese coolie labor system shall develop slavery of the Mexican or Chinese race within our territory, this amendment may safely be trusted to make it void.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, the Constitution protected slavery and promoted slave ownership.
The Constitution contained several proslavery clauses, including Article 1, Section 9, which prohibited Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808, and Article 4, Section 2, which contained the "fugitive slave clause", requiring that escaped slaves be returned to their owners.
The protection of slavery is considered the Constitution's "biggest flaw" because it institutionalised slavery and only protected the rights of white men.
