Founding Fathers: Slave Owners And The Constitution

The Founding Fathers of the United States include those who wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. Many of them were wealthy slave owners, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin. Four of the first five presidents of the United States were slave owners. During the Constitutional Convention, about 25 out of 55 delegates owned slaves, and the Constitution included several clauses related to slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Compromise and the fugitive slave clause. While some Founding Fathers expressed a desire to see slavery gradually abolished, they failed to address the issue directly, and slavery remained a difficult topic that eventually led to regional and political divides.

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George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison owned slaves

The issue of slavery was a difficult one for the Founding Fathers. A majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and nearly half of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention owned slaves. Four of the first five presidents of the United States were slave owners.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison were among the Founding Fathers who owned slaves. Washington, the preeminent Founding Father and a hereditary slave owner, kept hundreds of slaves. He inherited his first ten slaves at the age of 11 and continued the practice until his death. Washington's will immediately freed one of his slaves and required the remaining 123 to serve his wife and be freed no later than her death. They ultimately became free a year after he passed away.

Thomas Jefferson enslaved over 600 people throughout his life. He acquired most of them through the natural increase of enslaved families, inheriting around 175 people and purchasing fewer than 20. Jefferson knew that slavery was wrong and wrote about the differences between groups of people based on emerging ideas about race. He sold more than 110 slaves during his lifetime, mainly for financial reasons, and "gifted" 85 people to family members. Despite expressing scruples against selling slaves, Jefferson only freed two people during his lifetime.

James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, held contradictory views on slavery. He argued that it was incompatible with Revolutionary principles yet owned over 100 slaves on his Virginia plantation and brought enslaved people to the White House. Madison failed to act on his beliefs to influence policy and never abandoned slave labor as a Virginia landowner. He did not free his slaves in his will but instead left them to his wife, asking that she only sell them with their consent. She did not comply and sold them off to pay debts.

Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton were members of anti-slavery societies

Many of the Founding Fathers of the United States Constitution were slave owners, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Benjamin Franklin, one of the key founders, owned slaves early in his life but later became a vocal abolitionist. In 1787, he began serving as President of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, advocating for the abolition of slavery and the integration of freed slaves into American society.

Alexander Hamilton's connection to slavery is more complex. Hamilton, who was born and raised in the Caribbean, is often portrayed as an abolitionist, but recent research suggests that he may have owned slaves himself. He married into a large slave-owning family, the Schuylers, and acted as a legal arbiter in slave transactions for them. Hamilton was a member of the New York Manumission Society, which advocated for the emancipation of the enslaved, and he played a role in successfully lobbying for legislation to gradually abolish slavery in New York. During the American Revolutionary War, he endorsed a plan to recruit enslaved men to serve in the Continental Army, promising them freedom upon enlistment.

The 1787 Constitution indirectly mentioned slaves and slavery

The three-fifths 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. The fugitive slave clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. The African slave trade clause prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years.

The framers of the Constitution 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, South Carolina and Georgia would refuse to join the Union. By sidestepping the slavery issue, the framers left the seeds for future conflict.

Many of the framers harbored moral qualms about slavery, and some became members of anti-slavery societies. On August 21, 1787, a bitter debate broke out over a South Carolina proposal to prohibit the federal government from regulating the Atlantic slave trade. Luther Martin of Maryland, a slaveholder, argued that the slave trade should be subject to federal regulation and was contrary to America's republican ideals.

The Constitution produced by the fifty-five delegates in Philadelphia in 1787 recognized the existence of slavery as a powerful sectional interest and granted slaveholders important privileges. It was neither wholly anti-slavery nor wholly pro-slavery but the product of prolonged and contentious conflict, debate, and accommodation.

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The Three-Fifths Compromise: slaveholding states could count three-fifths of their slave population when apportioning representatives to Congress

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 total population 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.

The Southern states wanted their entire population to be counted, including slaves, to determine the number of Representatives they could elect and send to Congress. The Northern states, on the other hand, wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, as those slaves had no voting rights. The Southern states' economies were largely dependent on slave labour, especially after the invention of the cotton gin in 1793.

The Three-Fifths Compromise was a resolution to this impasse. It allowed the slaveholding states to count three-fifths of their slave population toward their total population for the purpose of apportioning the House of Representatives. This gave the Southern states more power in the House relative to the Northern states. The compromise was proposed by James Madison, who explained the reasoning for the 3/5 ratio in "The Apportionment of Members Among the States."

While the Three-Fifths Compromise has been interpreted by some as implying that slaves were considered three-fifths of a person, others argue that it encouraged freedom by giving an increase of "two-fifths" of political power to free over slave states. The Constitution also included a fugitive slave clause, requiring the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years.

Many of the Founding Fathers, including those who wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, were wealthy slave owners. Examples include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin. Despite expressing a desire to see slavery gradually abolished, they were unable to take bold action due to their commitment to private property rights and limited government.

The Fugitive Slave Clause: required the return of runaway slaves to their owners

The institution of slavery was a difficult issue for the Founding Fathers. A majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and nearly half of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention owned slaves. Four of the first five presidents of the United States were slave owners. Many of the Founding Fathers owned numerous slaves, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Others owned only a few slaves, such as Benjamin Franklin. Some married into large slave-owning families, such as Alexander Hamilton. Despite this, all expressed a wish at some point to see the institution gradually abolished. Benjamin Franklin, who owned slaves early in his life, later became president of the first abolitionist society in the United States.

The Fugitive Slave Clause, or Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3, was a stipulation in the US Constitution that required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. It was adopted by the convention on the same day that the convention agreed to a 20-year ban on any restrictions on the Atlantic slave trade. The clause stated that "no person held to service or labor" would be released from bondage in the event they escaped to a free state. The inclusion of the Fugitive Slave Clause in the US Constitution did not quell anti-slavery sentiment in the North, and many continued to petition Congress to abolish slavery.

The Fugitive Slave Clause was enforced by the Fugitive Slave Acts, which were a pair of federal laws enacted by Congress in 1793 and 1850. These laws allowed for the capture and return of runaway enslaved people within the territory of the United States. The first Fugitive Slave Act authorized local governments to seize and return escapees to their owners and imposed penalties on anyone who aided in their flight. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 added more provisions regarding runaways and levied harsher punishments for interfering in their capture.

The Fugitive Slave Acts were among the most controversial laws of the early 19th century. They resulted in the kidnapping and conscription of free Blacks into slavery, as purported fugitive slaves had no rights in court and could not defend themselves against accusations. The Acts also adversely affected the prospects of escape from slavery, particularly in states close to the North. The passage of the Acts contributed to the growing polarization of the country over the issue of slavery and was one of the factors that led to the start of the American Civil War.

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