Simone Lawson
The Constitution of the United States of America had a complex relationship with slavery. While it did not use the word slave or explicitly mention slavery, it included several provisions that implicitly recognised and protected the institution of slavery. The infamous Three-Fifths Compromise, for instance, gave southern states with large slave populations greater representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. Additionally, the Fugitive Slave Clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and the Constitution prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years. These clauses reflected a compromise between the Northern and Southern states, but ultimately, the Constitution's protection of slavery proved unsustainable, leading to the Civil War and the eventual abolition of slavery through the 13th Amendment in 1865.
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What You'll Learn
The Constitution's protection of slavery
The Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1787, was a compromise between Northern and Southern states that implicitly recognised and protected the institution of slavery. The document included several clauses that pertained to slavery, despite never directly using the words "slave" or "slavery".
The Three-Fifths Clause (Article I, Section 2, Clause 3) counted three-fifths of each state's enslaved population as part of its free population for the purposes of apportioning seats in the House of Representatives, allocating votes in the Electoral College, and determining direct taxes among the states. This gave Southern states extra representation in Congress and electoral votes, and it is estimated that Thomas Jefferson would have lost the 1800 election without this clause.
The Fugitive Slave Clause (Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3) required that escaped slaves who fled to another state were to be returned to their owners. This clause ensured that slaves did not become free simply by crossing state lines.
Article I, Section 9, Clause 1 (also known as the Importation Clause) prohibited Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808, twenty years after the Constitution took effect. This clause was a compromise between the Southern states, where slavery was a pivotal part of the economy, and the Northern states, where abolition was contemplated or had already been achieved.
The Constitution also gave the federal government the power to put down domestic rebellions, including slave insurrections.
The specific clauses related to slavery were included in the Constitution to gain the support of Southern delegates for a strong central government. Some historians argue that the Framers of the Constitution believed that slavery was morally wrong and would eventually die out, and they did not want to permanently stain the document with references to slavery. However, the protection of slavery in the Constitution ultimately led to the Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, which abolished slavery in the United States.
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The Three-Fifths Compromise
Slaveholding states wanted their entire population to be counted to determine the number of Representatives those states could elect and send to Congress. Free states wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, given that those slaves had no voting rights. A compromise was struck to resolve this impasse. 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, effectively giving the Southern states more power in the House relative to the North.
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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. The clause required that an escaped slave be returned to their owner. The exact wording was:
> 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 clause did not use the words "slave" or "slavery", in keeping with the Constitution's avoidance of these terms. The 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, has since rendered the Fugitive Slave Clause mostly irrelevant.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was unanimously approved by the Convention without further debate. However, James Wilson and Roger Sherman objected that this would oblige the executive of the State to seize fugitive slaves at public expense. The Fugitive Slave Clause was also the subject of legal challenges, with several Northern states enacting "personal liberty laws" to circumvent the Clause and protect free Black residents from kidnapping.
The broad language of the Clause enabled the kidnapping of free African Americans who were then illegally enslaved. The case of Solomon Northup, a free man abducted in Washington, D.C., and enslaved in Louisiana for twelve years, highlighted how the Clause enabled systemic abuse.
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The Civil War and slavery
The US Constitution, drafted in 1787, protected and institutionalised slavery through several provisions, despite never using the word "slave". The Three-Fifths Compromise, for instance, counted three-fifths of each state's enslaved population as part of its free population for allocating seats in the House of Representatives, giving extra representation and votes to the South. The Fugitive Slave Clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and the Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years. These clauses reflected a compromise between Northern and Southern states, but it was an unsustainable one, as the Civil War would show.
The Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865, was primarily fought over the issue of slavery. The Southern states, or the Confederacy, seceded from the Union due to their dependence on slavery and their belief in states' rights to make laws regarding slavery. The Northern states, or the Union, fought to preserve the Union and eventually to end slavery.
During the war, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, which came into effect on January 1, 1863, proclaiming the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion. However, it did not end slavery in the nation as it only applied to areas of the Confederacy in rebellion and not to the border states that had remained loyal to the Union.
After the war, it became clear that an amendment to the Constitution was needed to ensure that abolition was beyond legal challenge. The 13th Amendment, passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery in the United States. It stated that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime... shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." The 13th Amendment was a significant step towards racial equality, but it did not end all forms of racial discrimination, and inequalities traced back to slavery persisted.
In conclusion, the US Constitution, through its compromises and protections of slavery, played a role in the lead-up to the Civil War. The war itself, and the resulting 13th Amendment, abolished slavery, but the legacy of slavery and the fight for racial equality continued long after.
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The 13th Amendment
The original US Constitution, written in 1787, protected and institutionalised slavery. While the document never used the word "slave", it included several clauses that addressed slavery and the slave trade indirectly. One of the most well-known is the Three-Fifths Clause, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation, giving Southern states more 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 it prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years.
> "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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Frequently asked questions
Yes, the Constitution protected the institution of slavery. Article 1, Section 9, prohibited Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808, and Article 5 prohibited this from being amended. Article 1, Section 2, also known as the Three-Fifths Compromise, provided that three-fifths of each state's enslaved population was to be counted for representation in Congress. The Fugitive Slave Clause required that escaped slaves be returned to their owners. The Constitution also gave the federal government the power to put down slave insurrections.
No, the Constitution did not use the word "slavery" or "slave". The framers consciously avoided using these words, recognising that it would sully the document. They believed that slavery was morally wrong and would eventually die out, and they did not want a permanent moral stain on the document.
The Constitution created a central government powerful enough to eventually abolish slavery. The 13th Amendment, passed in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States. However, it is important to note that racial inequalities traced back to slavery persisted even after its abolition.
