Jonah Patel
The role of slavery in the US Constitution has been a topic of debate and controversy. While the Constitution did not explicitly mention the word slavery, it included specific clauses that indirectly addressed the institution of slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Clause, which gave extra representation to Southern states with a large slave population, and the Fugitive Slave Clause, which allowed owners to reclaim their slaves in other states. The Constitution's framers consciously avoided using the word slave, recognising its moral implications, but their intentions regarding slavery are questionable. Some, like Thurgood Marshall, argued that the Constitution laid the foundation for tragic events, while others, like William Lloyd Garrison, considered it a pro-slavery document. The Constitution's impact on slavery is complex; it may have temporarily strengthened slavery, but it also established a central government with the potential to abolish it, which eventually occurred with the 13th Amendment.
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What You'll Learn
The Fifth Amendment
The Three-Fifths Compromise, or the Three-Fifths Clause, was a critical component of the US Constitution that directly impacted slavery. This clause stated that for the purposes of representation in the House of Representatives and taxation, three-fifths of each state's enslaved population would be considered. This compromise gave extra representation to states with a large slave population, such as those in the South. The Three-Fifths Compromise is often seen as an implicit recognition of slavery in the Constitution.
The Constitution also included a provision that prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years. This delay in addressing the slave trade was a concession made to gain the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. Additionally, the Constitution included a fugitive slave clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners, even in free states.
While the Constitution contained these provisions that protected slavery, it is important to note that the word "slave" is notably absent from the document. The framers of the Constitution consciously avoided using the word, recognising its immoral implications. However, their avoidance of the term did not diminish the impact of these clauses on the institution of slavery.
In conclusion, the Fifth Amendment, particularly the interpretation of "property", played a significant role in shaping the legal basis for slavery in the United States. The Three-Fifths Compromise and other clauses related to the slave trade further entrenched the practice of slavery within the legal framework of the nation. It was only through amendments like the Thirteenth, which abolished slavery, and the subsequent Reconstruction Amendments that the legal foundations of slavery were challenged and ultimately overturned.
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The Three-Fifths Clause
The Three-Fifths Compromise was proposed by delegate James Wilson and seconded by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina. 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. This gave Southern states extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College.
The inclusion of the Three-Fifths Clause in the Constitution has been a subject of debate and controversy. Some argue that it strengthened slavery by providing Southern states with additional political power and representation. The Compromise also tied taxation to the same ratio, reducing the burden of taxation on slave states. This induced slave states to accept the Compromise.
Others argue that the Constitution created a central government powerful enough to eventually abolish slavery. The word "slave" does not appear in the Constitution, as the framers consciously avoided it, recognizing that it would tarnish the document. However, slavery received important protections, such as the fugitive slave clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and the ban on Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years.
The Three-Fifths Compromise has been criticized for its impact on the presidential election of 1800, where it is speculated that Thomas Jefferson would have lost without the additional slave-state votes. The Compromise also influenced the balance of sectional interests, with historian Garry Wills noting that it favoured Southern states with large slave populations.
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The Fugitive Slave Clause
> 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.
This clause gave slaveholders the right to reclaim their enslaved persons who had escaped to another state, regardless of whether slavery was outlawed in that state. The Fugitive Slave Clause was a compromise that allowed slaveholders to recover their "property", an enslaved person, from a different state. The clause was unanimously approved without debate, despite objections from James Wilson and Roger Sherman, who argued that it would force the state executive to seize fugitive slaves at public expense.
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The Thirteenth Amendment
The Amendment was the culmination of a long and contentious debate over the role of slavery in the United States. From its inception in 1776, the United States was divided into states that allowed slavery and states that prohibited it. The Constitution implicitly recognised slavery in provisions such as the Three-Fifths Compromise (Article I, Section 2, Clause 3), which provided that three-fifths of each state's enslaved population was to be added to its free population for the purposes of apportioning seats in the House of Representatives and Electoral College votes. The word "slave" does not appear in the Constitution, but slavery received important protections in the document.
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The role of the Framers
The US Constitution, which came into force in 1789, was drafted by 55 male representatives of 12 of the 13 former colonies. The Framers of the Constitution were revolutionary thinkers who created what would become the first successfully functioning government by the people. Their ideas of fairness, justice, and individual rights are what many world leaders emulate today.
However, the Constitution did not specifically refer to slavery, and the Framers went to great lengths to avoid overtly mentioning "slavery" or "slave". The Framers believed that slavery was morally wrong and would die out, and they did not want that permanent moral stain on the document. They avoided the word "slave" and instead referred to slaves as "persons". For instance, the Fugitive Slave Clause granted the owner of a person held to service or labour the right to seize and repossess them in another state, regardless of that state's laws. The Framers also consciously avoided using the word "slave" in the Three-Fifths Clause, which 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.
While some members of the Constitutional Convention voiced "eloquent objections" to slavery, the first African American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall later said they "consented to a document which laid a foundation for the tragic events which were to follow". Marshall, speaking on the 200th anniversary of the ratification of the US Constitution, said the document was "defective from the start" because the Framers had left out a majority of Americans when they wrote the phrase, "We the People".
The Constitution's power to prohibit the slave trade laid "the foundation for banishing slavery out of this country", as James Wilson said in the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention in 1787. However, many weren't keen on having their names attached to a document that mentioned slavery outright. The Constitution's original text reflected the Framers' embarrassment about slavery and their belief that it would eventually disappear.
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Frequently asked questions
The Constitution did not use the word "slavery" or "slave", but it included four clauses that addressed slavery and the slave trade indirectly. The specific clauses of the Constitution related to slavery were the Three-Fifths Clause, the ban on Congress ending the slave trade for twenty years, the fugitive slave clause, and the slave insurrections. The Constitution also gave extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College to the South, where slavery was prevalent.
The Constitution created a central government powerful enough to eventually abolish slavery. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1865, abolished slavery throughout the United States.
During the Constitutional Convention, delegates from Southern states, where slavery was a significant part of the economy, argued that the existence of slavery itself could not be threatened, and they would never join a new Union if that were proposed.
Some members of the Constitutional Convention, such as Luther Martin of Maryland, believed that slavery was contrary to America's republican ideals and inconsistent with the principles of the Revolution. Others, such as Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, believed that slavery corrupted slaveholders and threatened the country with divine punishment.
The Dred Scott v. Sandford case in 1857 involved a slave, Dred Scott, who sued for his freedom after his owner had taken him to live in a free state and territory. The Supreme Court ruled against Scott, citing the Fifth Amendment, which stated that "No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". The Court interpreted slaves as property, and therefore, Scott could not be deprived of his liberty without due process.
