Jonah Patel
The United States Constitution, which was ratified 200 years before the first African American, Thurgood Marshall, sat on the Supreme Court, has been described as defective from the start due to its failure to address slavery. While the word slave does not appear in the Constitution, it received important protections, including the notorious three-fifths clause, which gave the South extra representation. Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, about 25 owned slaves, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin. The complex legacy of the Constitution and its framers continues to be a subject of debate and reflection in American society.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Total number of framers of the Constitution | 55 |
| Number of framers who owned slaves | 25 (according to Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History); 17 (according to Constitutional Rights Foundation) |
| Number of slaves owned by framers | 1,400 |
| Framers who owned slaves | James Madison, Richard Bassett, John Blair, William Blount, Pierce Butler, Daniel Carroll, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Rutledge, Richard Dobbs Spaight, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton |
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What You'll Learn
The number of framers who owned slaves
The number of framers of the US Constitution who owned slaves is a complex and contentious issue. While the word "slave" does not appear in the Constitution, it is estimated that about 25 of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia owned slaves. This included prominent figures such as George Washington, who owned hundreds of slaves, and James Madison. Other notable slave-owning framers include Richard Bassett, John Blair, William Blount, Pierce Butler, Daniel Carroll, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Rutledge, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton, who married into a large slave-owning family.
The issue of slavery was a difficult one for the framers to navigate. Many of them were born into a slaveholding society where the morality of owning slaves was rarely questioned. While some colonies were for slavery, others were against it, and the institution had deep roots in the colonies. The framers consciously avoided using the word "slave" in the Constitution, recognizing that it would tarnish the document. However, they included protections for slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Clause, which gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College.
Some framers, such as Benjamin Franklin, who owned slaves early in his life, later became members of anti-slavery societies. Franklin even became the president of the first abolitionist society in the United States. Alexander Hamilton, who was born in a slave colony, also became a member of an anti-slavery society. Despite their personal wishes for gradual abolition, no national abolition legislation ever materialized during their time.
The framers' failure to address slavery in the Constitution had significant consequences. Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, criticized the framers on the 200th anniversary of the Constitution's ratification, stating that they "consented to a document which laid a foundation for the tragic events which were to follow." The compromise on slavery to gain support for a strong central government set the stage for future conflicts and the violent path towards equality and legal freedom for all Americans.
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The three-fifths clause
The Three-Fifths Compromise was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention. The compromise counted three-fifths of each state's slave population toward that state's total population. This was 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 US Constitution.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was struck to resolve an impasse between the free states and the slaveholding states. The free states wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, since those slaves had no voting rights. On the other hand, the slaveholding states wanted their entire population to be counted to determine the number of Representatives those states could elect and send to Congress.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was proposed by James Madison, and it gave the Southern states extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. Thomas Jefferson would have lost the election of 1800 if not for the Three-fifths Compromise. The Three-Fifths Compromise was repealed by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.
The Three-Fifths Compromise is one of the many concessions on slavery in the Constitution. Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, about 25 owned slaves. Many of the framers harbored moral qualms about slavery. Some, including Benjamin Franklin (a former slaveholder) and Alexander Hamilton (who was born in a slave colony in the British West Indies) became members of anti-slavery societies.
Several of the Founding Fathers of the United States were slaveholders, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Clark. Of the nine presidents who owned slaves, only Washington freed his.
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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. The clause requires a "Person held to Service or Labour" who flees to another state to be returned to their master in the state from which they escaped. The clause was adopted at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and was included in the Constitution to ensure the support of southern delegates for a strong central government.
The exact wording of the clause is as follows:
> 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.
The words "slave" and "slavery" are notably absent from the clause, as they are from the rest of the Constitution. This was a conscious decision by the framers, who recognised that the inclusion of these words would sully the document. Instead, the clause refers to a "Person held to Service or Labour", which typically meant a slave, apprentice, or indentured servant.
The Fugitive Slave Clause effectively nullified the Thirteenth Amendment's abolition of slavery. It gave slaveholders the right to reclaim their enslaved people who had escaped to another state, and it required the executive of the state to seize fugitive slaves at the public expense. This was enforced by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which was strengthened as part of the Compromise of 1850. The Supreme Court interpreted the clause as giving slave owners the same right to seize and repossess their enslaved people in another state as the local laws of their own state granted them.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was an important issue for South Carolina, which seceded from the Union in 1860. Its declaration placed heavy emphasis on the clause and accused Northern states of violating it. An attempt to repeal the clause in 1864 during the Civil War failed, and it was only rendered mostly irrelevant by the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery except as a punishment for criminal acts.
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The impact of slavery on the framers' views
The Constitution of the United States was drafted and ratified by a group of individuals known as the "framers." On the 200th anniversary of the ratification of the US Constitution, Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, remarked that the Constitution was "defective from the start." He criticized the framers for excluding the majority of Americans when they penned the phrase "We the People."
Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, about 25 owned slaves, including George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Richard Bassett. The framers of the Constitution consciously avoided using the word "slave," recognizing that it would tarnish the document. However, slavery received significant protections under the Constitution. The Three-Fifths Clause, for example, counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when allocating representation, giving the South additional representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. The Constitution also included a fugitive slave clause, requiring the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and prohibited Congress from banning the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years.
Many of the framers had moral qualms about slavery. Benjamin Franklin, a former slaveholder, and Alexander Hamilton, who was born in a slave colony in the British West Indies, became members of anti-slavery societies. Luther Martin of Maryland, a slaveholder himself, argued that the slave trade should be subject to federal regulation and was inconsistent with America's republican ideals. Similarly, George Mason, a Virginia delegate who owned hundreds of slaves, spoke out against slavery, stating that it "discourages arts and manufactures. The poor despise labor when performed by slaves."
The framers' views on slavery influenced their approach to the Constitution. They believed that concessions on slavery were necessary to gain the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. 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 avoiding the slavery issue, the framers sowed the seeds for future conflict. Madison acknowledged this tension, writing that the real difference in interests lay between the northern and southern states, with the institution of slavery and its consequences forming the line of discrimination.
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The legacy of slavery in the US
The United States of America, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal," began as a slave society. The legacy of slavery in the US is complex and multifaceted, with far-reaching consequences that continue to shape the country today.
Slavery was a divisive issue during the drafting of the US Constitution, with about 25 of the 55 framers of the Constitution enslaving people. While some members voiced objections to slavery, the final document included several protections for the institution of slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Compromise, which gave southern states extra representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College based on their slave populations. The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years and included a fugitive slave clause, requiring the return of runaway slaves to their owners. These concessions to slavery laid the foundation for future conflict and perpetuated the systemic oppression of African Americans.
The end of slavery through the Civil War and the subsequent civil rights movement marked a significant turning point in American history. However, the legacy of slavery continued to shape the country in profound ways. For Black Americans, the abolition of slavery was just the beginning of a long struggle for democratic equality and social justice. Even today, the impact of slavery can be seen in the social, economic, and political spheres, with millions of Black Americans facing systemic racism, discrimination, and social isolation.
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Frequently asked questions
Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, about 25 owned slaves.
Yes, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton all owned slaves.
The word "slave" does not appear in the Constitution, but slavery received important protections in it. For example, the Three-Fifths Clause gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years and included a fugitive slave clause requiring the return of runaway slaves to their owners.
