Malcolm Rivera
The United States Constitution, drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1789, did not contain the words slave or slavery within its text. However, it directly addressed American slavery in several of its provisions and implicitly recognised the institution of slavery. The Three-Fifths Compromise, for instance, counted three-fifths of each state's enslaved population as part of its free population for the purposes of representation and taxation. The Fugitive Slave Clause, meanwhile, stated that slaves who escaped to another state remained slaves. The 13th Amendment, passed in 1865, officially abolished slavery in the United States.
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What You'll Learn
The Three-Fifths Clause
Slaveholding states wanted their entire population to be counted to determine the number of Representatives they could send to Congress. On the other hand, free states wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, as those slaves had no voting rights. The Three-Fifths Compromise was a compromise that 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 the Southern states more power in the House relative to the Northern states.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which 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 proposed by James Madison, who explained the reasoning behind it in Federalist No. 54, "The Apportionment of Members Among the States" (February 12, 1788). Madison wrote that slaves were considered "in no respect whatever as persons", but also "not merely as property".
The Three-Fifths Compromise was superseded and explicitly repealed by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. This amendment provided that "representatives shall be apportioned... counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed."
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Fugitive Slave Clause
The Fugitive Slave Clause, also known as the Slave Clause or the Fugitives From Labour Clause, was Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution. It required a "Person held to Service or Labour" (usually a slave, apprentice, or indentured servant) who fled 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 it was approved unanimously without further debate, despite objections from James Wilson and Roger Sherman.
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 Fugitive Slave Clause did not use the words "slave" or "slavery", in keeping with the Constitution's avoidance of the words, despite protecting the institution. The 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in 1865, has made the clause mostly irrelevant. However, it has been noted that people can still be held to service or labour under limited circumstances.
There has been much debate about whether the Constitution was pro-slavery or anti-slavery. Historian Donald Fehrenbacher believes that the intent of the Constitution was to make it clear that slavery existed only under state law, not federal law. This is supported by the last-minute change to the Fugitive Slave Clause, which removed any inference that the Constitution legally sanctioned slavery. However, others, such as abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, have argued that the Constitution was a pro-slavery document.
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The 13th Amendment
The US Constitution, drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1789, did not contain the words "slave" or "slavery" in its text. However, it directly addressed American slavery in at least five provisions and indirectly protected the institution in other parts of the document. For instance, 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, located in Article IV, Section 2, stated that a slave who was bound by the laws of their home state remained a slave even if they fled to a non-slavery state.
> "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."
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The Civil War
The Constitution, drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1789, did not contain the words "slave" or "slavery" but included several provisions about unfree persons. One of the most significant was the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted three-fifths of each state's slave population when apportioning representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. This gave Southern states, which relied heavily on slave labour, particularly in agriculture, extra political power.
In the decades leading up to the Civil War, an abolitionist movement grew in strength in the North, calling for an immediate end to slavery. This movement was opposed by Southern states, where enslaved people made up about one-third of the population and were integral to the region's economy. The issue of slavery caused increasing tension and division between the North and the South, with many Southerners threatening to secede from the Union if the federal government attempted to abolish slavery.
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln, an opponent of slavery, was elected president, and in response, several Southern states seceded, forming the Confederate States of America and precipitating the start of the Civil War. The war ended in 1865 with the defeat of the Confederacy, and in December of that year, the 13th Amendment was ratified, officially abolishing slavery in the United States.
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The Founding Fathers' views
Many of the Founding Fathers, including those who drafted the Constitution, were slave owners themselves. Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, about 25 owned slaves, and the majority of those who signed the Declaration of Constitution also owned slaves. This likely influenced their decisions regarding slavery and the Constitution.
However, some Founding Fathers, such as Alexander Hamilton, who was born in a slave colony in the British West Indies, and Benjamin Franklin, a former slaveholder, became members of anti-slavery societies. They, along with other Founding Fathers, harbored moral qualms about slavery and believed it was a violation of natural rights and the principles of a republic. James Madison, often referred to as the "Father of the Constitution", attacked slavery early in the Constitutional Convention, stating:
> "We have seen the mere distinction of colour made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man."
Another Virginian, George Mason, who owned hundreds of slaves, also spoke out against slavery, stating that it brought down "the judgment of heaven on a country." Similarly, Luther Martin of Maryland, a slaveholder himself, argued during a debate in 1787 that the slave trade should be subject to federal regulation and was inconsistent with America's republican ideals.
Despite these differing views, the Founding Fathers ultimately chose to sidestep the issue of slavery in the Constitution, which some argue was a compromise to gain the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. This decision left the seeds for future conflict, as the issue of slavery became a source of sectionalism and disputes between the northern and southern sections of the nation.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, slavery was legal when the US Constitution was signed in 1787 and ratified in 1789. It was established by European colonization in all of the original 13 American colonies of British America.
No, the word "slavery" was not mentioned in the US Constitution. However, it dealt directly with American slavery in at least five of its provisions and indirectly protected the institution elsewhere in the document.
The Three-Fifths Compromise (Article I, Section 2, Clause 3) and the Fugitive Slave Clause (Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3) are two of the provisions in the US Constitution that refer to slavery. The Three-Fifths Compromise counted three-fifths of each state's enslaved population as part of 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 stated that slaves held under the laws of one state who escaped to another state did not become free but remained slaves.
Yes, many of the Founding Fathers, including some of the signers of the Declaration and the Constitution, owned slaves.
Slavery was abolished in the US with the passage of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865, after the Civil War.
