Simone Lawson
The US Constitution, which was ratified in 1787, has been criticized for protecting and institutionalizing slavery. While the document does not explicitly use the word slave, it includes several clauses that support the interests of slave owners. For example, the Three-Fifths Clause counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation, giving the South more power in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. Additionally, the Fugitive Slave Clause required runaway slaves to be returned to their owners, and the Constitution prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years. These provisions laid the foundation for tragic events and contributed to racial inequalities that persist in America today. It took a Civil War and constitutional amendments, such as the 13th Amendment in 1865, to finally abolish slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States.
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What You'll Learn
- The Three-Fifths Clause gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives
- The Fugitive Slave Clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners
- The Constitution prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years
- The Slave Insurrection Clause gave the federal government the power to put down slave rebellions
- The Constitution's language omitted the word slave and slavery
The Three-Fifths Clause gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives
The Three-Fifths Clause, also known as the Three-Fifths Compromise, was a compromise agreement between delegates from the Northern and Southern states at the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention. The Compromise stated that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives. This gave the Southern states more power in the House relative to the Northern states.
The Compromise was proposed by delegate James Wilson and seconded by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina. The Convention unanimously accepted the principle that representation in the House of Representatives would be in proportion to the relative state populations, but it initially rejected counting the slave population in this apportionment. Southern delegates threatened to abandon the convention if enslaved individuals were not counted, while Northerners questioned why slaves should be counted at all, given that they had no voting rights.
A contentious debate ensued, with Southern delegates countering that slaves counted just as much as voters. The compromise that was finally agreed upon—of counting "all other persons" as only three-fifths of their actual numbers—reduced the representation of the slave states relative to the original proposals but improved it over the Northern position. An inducement for slave states to accept the Compromise was its tie to taxation in the same ratio, so the burden of taxation on the slave states was also reduced.
The Three-Fifths Compromise had a significant impact on the representation of Southern states in the House of Representatives. For example, in 1793, Southern slave states had 47 out of 105 seats, which would have been 33 had seats been assigned based on free populations. In 1812, slave states held 76 out of 143 seats instead of the 59 they would have had without the Compromise. This additional representation gave the Southern states greater influence on the presidency, the speakership of the House, and the Supreme Court until the American Civil War.
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The Fugitive Slave Clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners
The US Constitution, which came into effect in 1789, included a Fugitive Slave Clause that required runaway slaves to be returned to their owners. This clause, also known as Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3, stated that "no person held to service or labour" could be freed from bondage if they escaped to a free state. This was included in the Constitution due to pressure from Southern politicians, who were concerned that the newly-created free states would become safe havens for runaway slaves.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was a significant victory for slave owners, as it ensured that their "property" could be retrieved even if it fled to a state where slavery had been abolished. This clause was a key part of the Constitution that protected and strengthened slavery. It was also one of the most controversial aspects of the Constitution and provoked strong reactions from abolitionists. William Lloyd Garrison, an abolitionist, burned a copy of the Constitution in 1854, calling it "a covenant with death and an agreement with Hell".
The Fugitive Slave Clause was enforced through the Fugitive Slave Acts, a pair of federal laws enacted by Congress in 1793 and 1850. These laws allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the United States. The first Fugitive Slave Act authorised local governments to seize escapees and return them to their owners, and it imposed penalties on anyone who aided in their flight. This law was widely criticised and resisted, particularly in Northern states, which became safe havens for runaway slaves.
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 added more provisions and imposed harsher punishments for interfering in the capture of runaway slaves. This Act contributed to the growing polarisation of the country over slavery and was one of the factors leading to the American Civil War. It also adversely affected the prospects of escape from slavery, particularly in states close to the North. Despite the inclusion of the Fugitive Slave Clause and the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Acts, anti-slavery sentiment remained strong, and many free blacks were illegally captured and sold into slavery.
The Constitution also made other concessions to slave owners. It prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years and gave the federal government the power to put down slave rebellions. The framers of the Constitution believed that these concessions were necessary to gain the support of Southern delegates for a strong central government. By sidestepping the issue of slavery, however, they laid the foundation for future conflict.
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The Constitution prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years
The Constitution of the United States was ratified in 1787, and it included a clause that prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years. This clause, known as the Slave Trade Clause or the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, was a compromise made by the framers of the Constitution to gain the support of southern delegates for a strong central government.
The Slave Trade Clause, or Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, stated that Congress could not prohibit the "importation" of persons prior to 1808. This meant that individual states were allowed to continue their involvement in the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years, even though there was growing opposition to the slave trade and slavery itself. During this 20-year period, popular support for the abolition of the slave trade increased, and Congress passed statutes regulating the trade in slaves by U.S. ships.
The framers of the Constitution believed that concessions on slavery were necessary to maintain national unity and prevent future conflict. They were convinced that if the Constitution restricted the slave trade, southern states like South Carolina and Georgia would refuse to join the Union. By sidestepping the issue of slavery, they laid the foundation for tragic events that were to follow, as Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, later pointed out.
In 1807, one year before the Slave Trade Clause was set to expire, President Thomas Jefferson anticipated this upcoming expiration in his annual message to Congress. He congratulated his fellow citizens on the approach of the period when they could "withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa." In the same year, Congress passed a statute prohibiting the importation of slaves as of January 1, 1808, which was signed by President Jefferson and took effect in 1808.
While the Slave Trade Clause in the Constitution did not directly support the interests of slave owners, it reflected the compromise made by the framers to gain southern support and maintain national unity. This compromise delayed the outlawing of the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years, allowing the practice of slavery to continue and even flourish during that time.
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The Slave Insurrection Clause gave the federal government the power to put down slave rebellions
The US Constitution, which came into effect in 1789, was "defective from the start", according to Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court. Marshall said that the document's authors had "laid a foundation for tragic events" by omitting the majority of Americans from the phrase "We the People".
The Constitution supported the interests of slave owners in several ways. Firstly, it gave the federal government the power to put down slave rebellions. This was known as the Slave Insurrection Clause, which stated that the government would suppress "domestic violence" and "insurrections". For slave owners, this meant putting down slave rebellions.
The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years. This was known as the Slave Trade Clause, which caused controversy as it was seen by some as a compromise to gain support for a strong central government from southern delegates. The Three-Fifths Clause was another way in which the Constitution supported the interests of slave owners. This 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.
Another example of how the Constitution supported the interests of slave owners was the Fugitive Slave Clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. This clause was adopted by the convention on the same day that the 20-year ban on restrictions of the Atlantic slave trade was agreed upon. The Fugitive Slave Clause allowed slave owners to locate their slaves in the North, obtain a certificate of removal from a state or federal judge, and bring their fugitive slaves home. People who harboured fugitive slaves could be fined up to $500 and sued for the value of any slave not recovered. In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law, which created a national system of law enforcement to return fugitive slaves to their owners.
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The Constitution's language omitted the word slave and slavery
The Constitution's language omitted the words "slave" and "slavery". Instead, it referred to slaves as "persons". The framers consciously avoided using the word "slave", 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.
Despite this, slavery received important protections in the Constitution. The three-fifths clause, for instance, 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 fugitive slave clause, meanwhile, required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years.
The Constitution's omission of the word "equality" is also notable, given that it protected and institutionalised slavery and only protected the rights of white men. Women, for instance, were not granted the right to vote until the adoption of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1865, finally abolished slavery in the United States. It states that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction".
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Frequently asked questions
The Constitution 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. Additionally, the Fugitive Slave Clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and the Constitution prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years.
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" due to its failure to include a majority of Americans when it wrote "We the People." He also pointed out that while some members of the Constitutional Convention objected to slavery, they ultimately consented to a document that laid the foundation for tragic events. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison also burned the document in 1854, calling it "a covenant with death and an agreement with Hell."
By sidestepping the issue of slavery, the framers of the Constitution left the seeds for future conflict. The concessions on slavery were made to gain the support of southern delegates for a strong central government, but they ultimately delayed addressing the issue and contributed to the Civil War.
The Constitution's protection of slavery is considered its biggest flaw, as it institutionalized slavery and only protected the rights of white men. Racial inequalities stemming from slavery have persisted throughout American history and continue to exist today.
Slavery was abolished in the United States through the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865. It states that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
