Jonah Patel
The US Constitution did not use the word slave or slavery but included several provisions related to unfree persons. The Three-Fifths Compromise, Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution, allocated Congressional representation based on the whole number of free persons and three-fifths of all other persons, referring to slaves who made up around a third of the Southern states' population. The Importation of Persons Clause in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1, prohibited the federal government from limiting the importation of persons, understood at the time to mean enslaved African persons, until 1808. The Fugitive Slave Clause in Article IV, Section 2, Clause 2, ensured the return of escaped slaves to their owners. These clauses protected slavery and contributed to tragic future events, as noted by Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Does the US Constitution use the word "slave" | No |
| Does the US Constitution mention slavery | Yes, implicitly |
| Examples of implicit mentions | Three-Fifths Compromise, Article I, Section 2, Clause 3; "Importation of Persons" Clause, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1; Fugitive Slave Clause, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 2 |
| Explicit mentions in Amendments | Thirteenth Amendment: "All persons are equal before the law, so that no person can hold another as a slave" |
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What You'll Learn
The US Constitution does not use the word 'slave'
The US Constitution does not use the word "slave". When the Constitution was drafted in 1787, slavery was a major component of the economy and society in the United States. The framers of the Constitution consciously avoided the word, recognising that it would sully the document. Instead, the Constitution included provisions that implicitly referred to enslaved people, such as the Three-Fifths Compromise (also known as the Three-Fifths Clause), which allocated Congressional representation based on "the whole Number of free Persons" and "three-fifths of all other Persons". This clause was a compromise between Southern politicians, who wanted enslaved African Americans to be counted as 'persons' for congressional representation, and Northern politicians who rejected these demands out of concern for giving the South too much power. The "other persons" referred to in the Three-Fifths Compromise were the African slaves who made up around a third of the population of the Southern states at that time.
Another provision in the Constitution that implicitly refers to enslaved people is the Fugitive Slave Clause in Article IV, Section 2, Clause 2. This clause states that "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." Again, the text carefully avoids using the word "slave".
The Importation of Persons Clause in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1, is another provision in the original Constitution related to slavery, although it does not use the word "slave". This clause prohibited the federal government from limiting the importation of "persons" (understood at the time to mean primarily enslaved African persons) where the existing state governments allowed it, until 20 years after the Constitution took effect. This was a compromise between the Southern states, where slavery was pivotal to the economy, and the states where slavery had been abolished or was being contemplated for abolition.
The absence of the word "slave" in the Constitution has been criticised. On the 200th anniversary of the ratification of the US Constitution, Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, said that the Constitution was "defective from the start". He pointed out that the framers had left out a majority of Americans when they wrote the phrase "We the People". Marshall argued that the framers "consented to a document which laid a foundation for the tragic events which were to follow", referring to the tragic consequences of slavery.
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The 'Three-Fifths Compromise'
The US Constitution does not use the word "slave", but it does include several provisions about unfree persons. One of these is the Three-Fifths Compromise, which is part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution. This clause allocated Congressional representation based on the whole number of free persons and "three-fifths of all other persons".
The Three-Fifths Compromise was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention over the inclusion of slaves in a state's total population. Delegates from the Northern and Southern states disagreed over the apportionment of legislative representation. Northern delegates sought to make representation dependent on the size of a state's free population, while Southern delegates threatened to abandon the convention if enslaved individuals were not counted. Eventually, a compromise was agreed upon: representation in the House of Representatives would be apportioned based on a state's free population plus three-fifths of its enslaved population. This gave the Southern states more power in the House relative to the Northern states, as the Southern states' enslaved populations made up around a third of their total populations.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was also used to determine the number of electoral votes each state would be allocated and how much money the states would pay in taxes. The compromise gave slaveholding states enlarged powers in Southern legislatures, as well as perpetual overrepresentation in national politics. However, the same three-fifths ratio was used to determine the federal tax contribution required of each state, increasing the direct federal tax burden of slaveholding states.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was superseded by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which explicitly repealed the compromise.
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The Slave Trade Clause
The US Constitution does not use the word "slave", but it does include several provisions that refer to "unfree persons". One of these provisions is the Slave Trade Clause, also known as the Importation of Persons Clause. This clause is Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 of the Constitution, which prohibited the federal government from limiting the importation of "persons" until 20 years after the Constitution took effect. At the time, "persons" were understood to refer primarily to enslaved African persons.
The Fugitive Slave Clause is another provision that relates to slavery without using the term. This clause states that "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."
Traces of a slave-holding society can be seen in other parts of the early Constitution, from the federal structure of the government to the protection of property in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, has rarely been cited in case law, but it has been used to strike down peonage and some race-based discrimination.
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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. It requires that a "person held to Service or Labour" who escapes to another state be returned to their master in the state they fled from. The clause does not use the word "slave", but it formed the basis for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which gave slaveholders the right to capture their escaped slaves.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was a compromise between the Northern and Southern states, which had differing views on slavery. By the late 19th century, the United States was divided between free states, which did not allow slavery, and slave states, where slavery was a way of life. The Fugitive Slave Clause allowed slaveholders to reclaim their "property" across state lines.
The clause was adopted at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It was proposed by Pierce Butler and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, who wanted to "require fugitive slaves and servants to be delivered up like criminals". The proposal was approved unanimously without further debate, despite objections from James Wilson and Roger Sherman.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was effectively nullified by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery "except as a punishment for crime". After the Civil War, the nation ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, rendering slavery unconstitutional and illegal across the country. The subsequent passage of the Thirteenth Amendment made the Fugitive Slave Clause mostly irrelevant, as it abolished the legal basis for slavery that the clause relied on.
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Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
The US Constitution of 1787 did not use the words "slave" or "slavery" but included several provisions about unfree persons. Traces of a slave-holding society can be seen in the early Constitution, from the federal structure of the government to the Senate and limitations on the powers of the federal government.
Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1, is one of a handful of provisions in the original Constitution related to slavery, though it does not use the word "slave". This clause prohibited the federal government from limiting the importation of "persons" (understood at the time to mean primarily enslaved African persons) where existing state governments allowed it, for 20 years after the Constitution took effect.
The "Three-Fifths Clause" in Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3, provided that apportionment of representatives would be based on the population of free persons excluding "Indians not taxed" and "three-fifths of all other persons", referring to the African slaves who made up around a third of the population of the Southern states. The "Fugitive Slave Clause" in Article IV, Section 2, Clause 2, states that "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."
> [A]ll persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
The proclamation did not affect the status of slaves in the border states that had remained loyal to the Union, nor did it make slavery illegal. However, it played a significant part in the end of slavery in the United States. It added moral force to the Union cause and strengthened the Union both militarily and politically. As federal troops advanced, slaves escaped to Union lines, and slave owners fled, leaving slaves behind. Lincoln also insisted that Reconstruction plans for Southern states required them to enact laws abolishing slavery.
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Frequently asked questions
No, the word "slave" does not appear in the US Constitution.
The framers of the Constitution consciously avoided the word, recognising that it would sully the document. Instead, they used terms like "'persons' and 'other persons'.
Yes, there are a handful of provisions in the original Constitution related to slavery, including the Three-Fifths Clause, the Fugitive Slave Clause, and the Importation of Persons Clause.
The Three-Fifths Clause, also known as the Three-Fifths Compromise, provided that three-fifths of each state's slave population ("other persons") was to be added to its free population for the purposes of apportioning seats in the US House of Representatives, the number of Electoral College votes, and direct taxes among the states.
Yes, some members of the Constitutional Convention voiced "eloquent objections" to slavery. Luther Martin of Maryland, for example, said that the slave trade was contrary to America's republican ideals and dishonourable to the American character.
