Jonah Patel
The United States Constitution, drafted in 1787, did not contain the word slave or explicitly mention slavery. However, it included several provisions and clauses that implicitly recognised slavery and provided protections for the practice. The Three-Fifths Compromise, for instance, allocated Congressional representation based on the number of free persons and three-fifths of all other persons, referring to enslaved people. The Fugitive Slave Clause also ensured that escaped slaves were returned to their enslavers. These clauses and the absence of explicit language condemning slavery have sparked debates about whether the Constitution was pro-slavery or laid the foundation for future conflict. It wasn't until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865 that slavery was officially abolished in the United States.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| The word "slave" or "slavery" is avoided in the Constitution | The word "slave" or "slavery" does not appear in the Constitution |
| The Three-Fifths Compromise | Three-fifths of each state's enslaved population ("other persons") was to be added to its free population for the purposes of apportioning seats in the United States House of Representatives, its number of Electoral votes, and direct taxes among the states |
| The Fugitive Slave Clause | Slaves held under the laws of one state who escaped to another state did not become free, but remained slaves and had to be returned to their enslavers |
| The Slave Trade Clause | The federal government was prohibited from limiting the importation of "persons" where existing state governments allowed it, until 20 years after the Constitution took effect in 1787 |
| Abolition | The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1864/1865, abolished slavery in the United States |
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What You'll Learn
The US Constitution's avoidance of the word 'slavery'
The original United States Constitution did not contain the words "slave" or "slavery" within its text. However, it directly dealt with American slavery in at least five of its provisions and indirectly protected the institution in other parts of the document. The framers of the Constitution consciously avoided using the words "slave" or "slavery", recognising that it would sully the document. Instead, they used euphemisms like "Person held to Service or Labour" to sidestep moral confrontation while preserving the institution.
The framers' conflicted stance toward slavery led them to deliberately avoid using direct language about the institution in the Constitution. Many of them personally opposed slavery on moral grounds, but they prioritised political unity over abolition. As a result, they made key compromises, such as the Three-Fifths Clause and the Fugitive Slave Clause, that protected slaveholding interests. These clauses gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College.
The issue of slavery may have played a role in the omission of a bill of rights in the original version of the U.S. Constitution. Richard Primus explains that drafting a bill of rights for the entire Union would have required choosing between rival formulations, risking conflict that might have prevented an agreement on the Constitution. The stark contrasts between northern and southern states regarding their bills of rights further complicated the matter. Northern states, such as Massachusetts, used universalistic language affirming freedom and equality for all men, while southern states, like Virginia, employed restrictive language limiting rights to "freemen," accommodating slavery.
The framers' use of euphemisms and avoidance of direct language on slavery in the Constitution laid the foundation for tragic events and future conflicts. Their concessions on slavery were the price for the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. They believed that if the Constitution restricted the slave trade, states like South Carolina and Georgia would refuse to join the Union. This compromise, as Madison noted, revealed the real difference of interests between the northern and southern states, with the institution of slavery and its consequences forming the line of discrimination.
Whether the Constitution was pro-slavery or anti-slavery is still a matter of debate. While some argue that it strengthened slavery, others contend that it created a central government powerful enough to eventually abolish the institution. The criticism of the Constitution's stance on slavery highlights the complex and contradictory nature of the document in addressing the issue of slavery in the United States.
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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 must be returned to their master in the state from which they fled. The clause was adopted at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and remained in effect until the abolition of slavery under the Thirteenth Amendment, which rendered it unenforceable.
The Fugitive Slave Clause gave slaveholders the right to reclaim their "property", with Northern free states required to capture fugitive slaves and return them to their masters in Southern slave states. This was a significant issue as by 1787, only Vermont and Massachusetts had outlawed or effectively outlawed slavery. The clause was proposed by Pierce Butler and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, who sought to "require fugitive slaves and servants to be delivered up like criminals".
The Fugitive Slave Clause formed the basis for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which gave slaveholders the right to capture their escaped slaves. The enforcement provisions of this Act were strengthened as part of the Compromise of 1850, with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 requiring the federal government to play a role in capturing fugitive slaves and returning them to their owners.
The Fugitive Slave Clause did not explicitly mention the word "slave", instead referring to a "person held to Service or Labour". This was a deliberate decision, reflecting the intent to make it clear that slavery existed only under state law, not federal law.
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Three-Fifths Compromise
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. This count would determine the number of seats in the House of Representatives, the number of electoral votes each state would be allocated, and how much money the states would pay in taxes.
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, given that 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.
The Three-Fifths Compromise is part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution. It states: "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 first proposed by James Madison and later by delegate James Wilson and seconded by Charles Pinckney. It was a compromise between Southern states, where slavery was pivotal to the economy, and states where the abolition of slavery had been accomplished or was contemplated.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was superseded by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment (1868), which explicitly repealed the compromise.
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Abolitionist movement
The abolitionist movement was an organised effort to end the practice of slavery in the United States. It took place from about 1830 to 1870, with some sources placing the start date as early as 1783. The movement was inspired by the Second Great Awakening, a Protestant revival that encouraged the idea that all men are created equal in the eyes of God. Most early abolitionists were religious, white Americans, but some of the most prominent leaders of the movement were Black men and women who had escaped slavery.
Abolitionists saw slavery as an abomination and an affliction on the United States, and their goal was to eradicate slave ownership. They sent petitions to Congress, ran for political office, and distributed anti-slavery literature in the South. These activists wanted to abolish slavery completely, which set them apart from other groups that simply opposed the expansion of slavery. The abolitionist movement was a controversial political issue that divided the country, and supporters and critics often engaged in heated and even deadly confrontations. This divisiveness, along with other factors, led to the Civil War and ultimately the end of slavery in America.
Some of the most famous abolitionists include William Lloyd Garrison, who started a publication called "The Liberator", which supported the immediate freeing of all enslaved people. Frederick Douglass, who had escaped slavery himself, published a memoir titled "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave", and was an instrumental figure in the abolitionist movement. He also supported women's suffrage. Harriet Beecher Stowe was an author and abolitionist best known for her novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Susan B. Anthony was an author, speaker, and women's rights activist who supported the abolitionist movement and worked diligently to fight for women's right to vote.
The abolitionist movement in the United States was influenced by earlier efforts in Britain, where Granville Sharp secured a legal decision in 1772 that West Indian planters could not hold slaves because slavery was contrary to English law. By the late 18th century, moral disapproval of slavery was widespread, and British and American abolitionists worked to prohibit the importation of enslaved Africans into British colonies.
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13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, passed on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery and prohibited involuntary servitude in the United States and its territories. The text of the amendment states:
> "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."
The 13th Amendment was preceded by President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which declared that all slaves in the rebellious states would henceforth be free. However, the Proclamation did not end slavery nationwide, as it only applied to areas of the Confederacy in a state of rebellion and not to the border states that remained in the Union. Lincoln recognised that a constitutional amendment was necessary to guarantee the abolishment of slavery.
The 13th Amendment was passed at the end of the Civil War, before the Southern states had been restored to the Union. While the Senate passed it in April 1864, the House initially did not. The amendment received the required ratification from three-fourths of the states by December 6, 1865, and was officially certified and accepted into the Constitution twelve days later.
In addition to abolishing chattel slavery, the 13th Amendment also restricted other forms of bound labour and servitude, such as indentured servitude and peonage. The enforcement clause in Section Two of the amendment has been used to combat racial discrimination in various sectors, including private employment, public transportation, and housing.
The 13th Amendment is one of three Civil War amendments, along with the 14th and 15th Amendments, that significantly expanded the civil rights of Americans. It provided a final constitutional solution to the issue of slavery, which had been a contentious topic during the drafting of the Constitution and had been sparingly mentioned in the original document.
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Frequently asked questions
The US Constitution did not expressly use the words "slave" or "slavery" but it did include provisions that implicitly recognised slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Clause. The Founding Fathers criticised slavery severely, but many also owned slaves. The Constitution created a central government powerful enough to eventually abolish slavery.
The Three-Fifths Compromise, or Clause, was a provision in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution, which allocated Congressional representation based on the number of free persons and "three-fifths of all other persons". This was a compromise between Southern politicians, who wanted enslaved African Americans to be counted as "persons" for Congressional representation, and Northern politicians, who rejected this idea.
The Fugitive Slave Clause, or Fugitive Slave Law, was a provision in Article IV, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution, which stated 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". This meant that enslaved people who ran away were not free and had to be returned to their enslavers.
Yes, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 of the Constitution prohibited the federal government from limiting the importation of "persons" where existing state governments allowed it, until 20 years after the Constitution took effect, i.e. until 1808. 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 going to be abolished.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
