Founding Fathers: Slave Owners And The Constitution

The United States Constitution, ratified in 1788, was a document that laid the foundation for the nation's laws and governance. However, it had a complex relationship with slavery, an institution that was deeply entrenched in American society at the time. While the word slave is notably absent from the Constitution, it included provisions that implicitly protected and perpetuated slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Clause. The question of how many signatories of the Constitution were slave owners is significant in understanding the complexities of this relationship.

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The number of cosigners of the US Constitution who were slave owners is estimated to be between 17 and 25

The number of cosigners of the US Constitution who were slave owners is a contentious issue. While the exact number is unknown, it is estimated to be between 17 and 25 out of the 55 total delegates. This discrepancy may be due to different definitions of slave ownership or the evolving nature of historical research and understanding.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History and the Constitutional Rights Foundation provide the estimated range of 17 to 25. The institute also highlights that the Constitution's framers consciously avoided using the word "slave," recognizing its negative connotation. Instead, they included protections for slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Clause, which gave southern states extra representation based on their slave populations.

The issue of slavery was a challenging one for the Founding Fathers, many of whom were born into a slaveholding society. While some Founding Fathers, like George Washington, began to express a desire to distance themselves from slavery, they often did not take a public stand against it. Washington, for example, described his ownership of slaves as his "only unavoidable subject of regret."

The Constitution's relationship with slavery is a complex topic. While it did not explicitly use the word "slave," it included provisions that protected and strengthened the institution of slavery. On the other hand, it also created a central government with the potential power to eventually abolish slavery, which it did through the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, ending a tragic chapter in American history.

The Constitution implicitly protected slavery, despite the word slave not being included

The United States Constitution, from its inception in 1776, implicitly protected slavery through several provisions, despite the word "slave" never being explicitly mentioned in the document. The Constitution's framers consciously avoided using the word "slave", recognising that it would sully the document. However, they made concessions on slavery to gain support for a strong central government from southern delegates, who threatened to refuse to join the Union if slavery was restricted. This compromise laid the foundation for future conflict, as the issue of slavery was sidestepped rather than addressed directly.

One of the most notable ways in which the Constitution implicitly protected slavery was through the Three-Fifths Compromise (Article I, Section 2, Clause 3). This provision counted three-fifths of each state's enslaved population ("other persons") towards its free population when apportioning seats in the House of Representatives, giving the South extra representation. This compromise also gave Southern states extra votes in the Electoral College. Additionally, the Constitution prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years and included a fugitive slave clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners.

The protections afforded to slavery in the Constitution were not without objection, even at the time of its drafting. Some members of the Constitutional Convention voiced "eloquent objections" to slavery, recognising the moral dilemma it presented. However, they ultimately consented to a document that laid the groundwork for tragic events in the future. Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, later described the Constitution as “defective from the start" due to its failure to include and protect the rights of all Americans.

The Constitution's implicit protection of slavery had far-reaching consequences, and the institution of slavery continued to be a difficult issue for the Founding Fathers to navigate. Many of them, including George Washington, owned slaves, and nearly half of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were slave owners. As the ideals of the Enlightenment spread and the Revolution progressed, slavery became a highly controversial topic, leading to vast regional and political divides. It would take the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, passed in 1865, to finally abolish slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.

The Three-Fifths Compromise gave Southern states extra representation based on their slave populations

The Three-Fifths Compromise was a contentious agreement struck during the 1787 Constitutional Convention to determine the degree to which slaves would be considered persons or property in the United States. 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. This gave Southern states more representation in the House relative to the Northern states, as well as increased voting power in the Electoral College.

The Compromise was reached after a contentious debate between Northern and Southern delegates. The Southerners claimed that slaves counted just as much as voters, while Northerners questioned why slaves should be counted at all, given that they had no voting rights. Initially, the Southern delegates proposed full representation for their slave population, which was voted down by most states. A compromise was necessary to maintain the unity of the states, and so the three-fifths ratio was agreed upon by eight states to two.

The Three-Fifths Compromise had significant implications for the representation of slave states in the House of Representatives. By including three-fifths of slaves in the legislative apportionment, it provided additional representation for slave states compared to if representation had been based solely on the non-slave population. For example, in 1793, Southern slave states held 47 out of 105 seats in the House, whereas they would have had only 33 seats if representation had been based on free populations alone. This disparity increased over time, with slave states holding 76 out of 143 seats in 1812 and 98 out of 240 seats in 1833, far exceeding the number of seats they would have been allocated without the Compromise.

The Compromise also had consequences for taxation, as it tied the burden of taxation to the representation ratio. This meant that the slave states' taxation burden was reduced relative to the free states. Additionally, the Compromise indirectly influenced the outcome of elections, with Thomas Jefferson's victory in 1800 being attributed in part to the extra representation gained by Southern states through the Three-Fifths Compromise.

The Three-Fifths Compromise was one of several concessions made to slavery during the drafting of the Constitution. While some members of the Constitutional Convention voiced objections to slavery, the final document omitted the word "slave" while providing important protections for the institution. These protections included the Fugitive Slave Clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and a provision prohibiting Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years. Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, about 25 owned slaves, including James Madison, who proposed the three-fifths ratio.

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The Constitution prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years

The Constitution of the United States is a document that has been criticised for its implicit support of slavery. The Constitution prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years, a concession made to gain the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. The Three-Fifths Clause, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population in apportioning representation, gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. This clause, along with the Fugitive Slave Clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and the 20-year moratorium on outlawing the slave trade, were protections for slavery that were written into the Constitution.

The framers of the Constitution avoided using the word "slave", recognising that it would sully the document. Instead, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1, of the Constitution, prevented Congress from outlawing the importation of "persons" until 20 years after the Constitution took effect. This clause expired in 1808, and in that same year, the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves was passed, a federal law that prohibited the importation of slaves into the United States.

The compromise on slavery was a controversial issue at the time of the Constitutional Convention, with northern states against the continued importation of slaves and southern states in favour. The framers of the Constitution believed that concessions on slavery were necessary to gain the support of the southern states, and they were convinced that if the Constitution restricted the slave trade, states like South Carolina and Georgia would refuse to join the Union. This compromise, however, laid the foundation for tragic future events, as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall pointed out.

Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, about 25 owned slaves, and 11 of the 55 delegates who signed the Constitution "owned or managed slave-operated plantations or large farms".

The Fugitive Slave Clause required runaway slaves to be returned to their owners

The Three-Fifths Clause, the prohibition on Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for two decades, and the Fugitive Slave Clause are some of the protections and concessions on slavery that were included in the US Constitution. The Fugitive Slave Clause, also known as Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3, required runaway slaves to be returned to their owners.

The Fugitive Slave Clause was included in the US Constitution as a concession to Southern politicians who were concerned that the newly-free Northern states would become safe havens for runaway slaves. The clause was adopted on the same day as the Three-Fifths Compromise, which gave Southern states extra representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, about 25 owned slaves, and many of the framers had moral qualms about slavery.

The Fugitive Slave Clause was enforced through the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850, which were among the most controversial laws of the early 19th century. These Acts allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the United States. The 1793 Act authorized local governments to seize and return escapees to their owners and imposed penalties on anyone who aided in their flight. The 1850 Act added more provisions regarding runaways and levied harsher punishments for interfering in their capture, including a $1,000 fine and six months in jail. It also placed control of individual cases in the hands of federal commissioners, who were incentivized to rule in favor of slave owners.

The Fugitive Slave Acts contributed to the growing polarization of the country over slavery and were factors in the founding of the Republican Party and the start of the American Civil War. During the war, Union forces sometimes returned fugitive slaves to their owners, but this practice was ended by the Confiscation Act of 1862, which barred Union officers from returning slaves to their owners. The Fugitive Slave Act was formally repealed in June 1864.

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