Isabella Carter
The role of slavery under the United States Constitution was a contentious issue during its drafting in 1789. While the word slave does not appear in the Constitution, slavery received important protections in the form of three clauses relating to slavery that made it into the final draft. The Three-Fifths Clause gave slave states disproportionate political power, while the Fugitive Slave Clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. The third clause, known as the Importation Clause, prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years. Although some believed that the Constitution's power to prohibit the slave trade would lay the foundation for banishing slavery out of this country, others, including abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, considered it a pro-slavery document. The 13th Amendment, passed in 1865, officially abolished slavery in all states.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Slavery at the founding of the U.S. Constitution | Legal |
| Abolition of slavery in the U.S. | 13th Amendment, passed in 1865 |
| The word "slave" in the Constitution | Not mentioned |
| "Slavery" in the Constitution | Not mentioned |
| Compromise on slavery | Three-Fifths Clause, Fugitive Slave Clause, and Importation Clause |
| Number of Constitutional Convention delegates who owned slaves | 25 out of 55 |
| Anti-slavery framers | Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Oliver Ellsworth, James Wilson, James Madison, George Mason, Gouverneur Morris, Thomas Jefferson |
| Attempts to expand slavery | Mexican Cession, Ostend Manifesto, Narciso López's expeditions to Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Latin America |
| Northern states' stance on slavery | Abolished slavery by 1805, prohibited slavery in constitutions |
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What You'll Learn
The Three-Fifths Compromise
Slavery was legal and existed in the United States of America upon its founding in 1776. It was established by European colonisation in all 13 American colonies of British America. The word "slave" does not appear in the Constitution, but slavery received important protections in the document.
Slaveholding states wanted their entire population to be counted to determine the number of Representatives they could elect and send to Congress. Free states wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, as those slaves had no voting rights. The Three-Fifths 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 Southern states more power in the House relative to the North.
The compromise was proposed by delegate James Wilson and seconded by Charles Pinckney. It was proposed after compromises of one-half and three-fourths failed to gain sufficient support. The Three-Fifths Compromise gave slaveholders enlarged powers in Southern legislatures, and this was an issue in the secession of West Virginia from Virginia in 1863. In 1868, Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment superseded this clause and explicitly repealed the compromise.
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The Fugitive Slave Clause
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."
It is notable that, similar to other references in the Constitution dealing with slavery, the words "slave" and "slavery" are not used in this clause. Instead, the phrase "held to Service or Labour" is used to describe the status of enslaved people.
However, resistance to the enforcement of the Clause increased in the North during the 19th century, and several Northern states enacted personal liberty laws to protect free Black residents and provide safeguards for accused fugitives. The Supreme Court's interpretation of the Clause, as seen in cases such as Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842) and Ableman v. Booth (1859), reinforced federal supremacy but further polarised public opinion.
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The Founding Fathers' beliefs
Many of the framers of the Constitution harboured moral qualms about slavery. Some, including Benjamin Franklin (a former slaveholder) and Alexander Hamilton (born in a slave colony in the British West Indies), became members of anti-slavery societies. Alexander Stephens, the Vice-President of the Confederacy, argued that most Founding Fathers believed slavery was a "violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically." They believed that it was an "evil they knew not well how to deal with" and that it would pass away in time.
However, the Founding Fathers' beliefs were also influenced by economic and political considerations. The Three-Fifths Clause of the Constitution, for example, gave slave states disproportionate political power, counting three-fifths of a state's slave population in apportioning representation. This 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, a compromise that some believed was made to eventually abolish slavery.
The role of slavery under the Constitution was highly contentious, and the Founding Fathers' beliefs reflected this complexity. While some Founding Fathers may have had moral objections to slavery, they also had to navigate the political and economic realities of the time, which included the lucrative nature of slavery and the power it provided to certain states.
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The Thirteenth Amendment
The official text of the amendment is: "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. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
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The Civil War and Emancipation
The Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery and the question of state sovereignty. The southern states, which had a strong economic dependence on slavery, saw the federal government's increasing opposition to slavery as a threat to their way of life. The northern states, on the other hand, viewed slavery as morally wrong and sought to abolish it. This moral stance was influenced by the Enlightenment and the American Revolution, which brought the desire for abolition to the political agenda.
During the war, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, declaring that all slaves in the Confederate states would be "forever free." However, this proclamation did not end slavery in the nation as it only applied to areas of the Confederacy in rebellion, and not to the "loyal" border states that remained in the Union. The proclamation also did not apply to enslaved persons in portions of southern states under Union control.
As the nation approached the end of the Civil War, questions arose about the legal authority for the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln recognized that a constitutional amendment was necessary to guarantee the abolishment of slavery. The 13th Amendment, passed at the end of the Civil War, finally abolished slavery in the United States. It was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865.
The 13th Amendment, along with the 14th and 15th Amendments, are known as the Reconstruction Amendments or the Civil War Amendments. They greatly expanded the civil rights of Americans. The 14th Amendment wrote the promise of freedom and equality from the Declaration of Independence into the Constitution, and the 15th Amendment promised to end racial discrimination in voting. Many scholars refer to these amendments as America's Second Founding.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, slavery was legal at the founding of the US Constitution. The Constitution included several provisions regarding unfree persons and the slave trade, such as the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation, and the Fugitive Slave Clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners.
Many of the framers of the Constitution had moral qualms about slavery and believed it contradicted the natural rights of all individuals. James Madison, often referred to as the "Father of the Constitution," criticized slavery during the Constitutional Convention, stating that it was "the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man." George Mason, another Virginian, feared that slavery would bring "the judgment of heaven on a country." No delegates to the Constitutional Convention defended the morality of slavery.
While the Constitution did not expressly mention the words "slave" or "slavery", it included provisions that some believed could lead to the abolition of slavery. For example, Article I, Section 9, Clause 1, known as the Importation Clause, allowed Congress to pass legislation outlawing the "Importation of Persons," which eventually occurred in 1808. Frederick Douglass argued that this clause "looked to the abolition of slavery rather than to its perpetuity."
Slavery was officially abolished in the United States with the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865. The 13th Amendment 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."
