Eleanor Finch
The US Constitution's protection of slavery is considered its biggest flaw. While the word slave is not mentioned in the Constitution, the Three-Fifths Clause gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1865, abolished slavery in the US.
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What You'll Learn
The 13th Amendment
The Constitution, ratified in 1787, included several provisions that protected slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for representation purposes, and the Fugitive Slave Clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. These compromises were made to gain the support of southern delegates for a strong central government, but they laid the foundation for future conflict. As more states entered the Union, the issue of slavery became increasingly divisive, and violence erupted within the Capitol.
In the mid-19th century, the abolitionist movement gained momentum, and several members of Congress proposed amendments to abolish slavery. President Lincoln, who had issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, declaring all slaves in rebel states to be free, took an active role in ensuring the passage of the 13th Amendment. He added it to the Republican Party platform for the 1864 election and worked to gain support for its passage.
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Fugitive Slave Clause
The Fugitive Slave Clause, also known as the Slave Clause or the Fugitives From Labour Clause, is Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution. The clause was adopted at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and requires that a "Person held to Service or Labour" (usually a slave, apprentice, or indentured servant) who flees to another state must be returned to their master in the state from which they escaped.
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 important to note that the words "slave" and "slavery" are not used in this clause, as was the case with other references to slavery in the Constitution. However, the intent to acknowledge the existence of slavery under state law, not federal law, has been observed by historians.
The Fugitive Slave Clause gave enslavers the right to seize enslaved people who escaped to free states. This right was upheld by the Supreme Court, which interpreted the clause to mean that the owner of an enslaved person had the same right to seize and repossess them in another state as the local laws of their own state granted to them. State laws that conflicted with this right were deemed unconstitutional.
The enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Clause was strengthened by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which was part of the Compromise of 1850. This Act made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves. It also imposed penalties on those who obstructed or prevented the capture of fugitive slaves.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was effectively nullified by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery except as a punishment for criminal acts. This amendment rendered the clause mostly irrelevant, although it has been noted that people can still be held to service or labour under limited circumstances.
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Three-Fifths Compromise
The Three-Fifths Compromise was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention regarding 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 slaveholding states wanted their entire population to be counted to determine the number of Representatives they could elect and send to Congress. In contrast, the Free States wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, given that those slaves had no voting rights. The compromise struck was to count 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 Northern states. This agreement came to be known as the Three-Fifths Compromise: "Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States...according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons...three-fifths of all other Persons."
The three-fifths ratio was proposed by James Madison and seconded by Charles Pinckney. It was initially proposed as an amendment to the Articles of Confederation on April 18, 1783, but it failed to gain unanimous approval. The compromise was a resolution to the deadlock between the Virginia, or large state, plan, which provided for a bicameral legislature with representation of each state based on its population or wealth, and the New Jersey, or small state, plan, which proposed equal representation for each state in Congress.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution. Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) later superseded this clause and explicitly repealed the compromise.
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Abolitionists
The abolitionists were a driving force in Congress during the 1860s, and their long battle against slavery finally bore fruit with the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865. This amendment abolished slavery in the United States and its territories, stating 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 road to this achievement was long and arduous, with abolitionists facing strong opposition from pro-slavery southern lawmakers. The issue of slavery was a source of division in the country, and violent clashes erupted within the Capitol as more states entered the Union without a resolution to the slavery debate.
Another notable abolitionist was John Quincy Adams, who fervently opposed slavery and led the opposition to the "gag rule" in the House of Representatives, which prevented debate on anti-slavery petitions. Adams earned the nickname "Old Man Eloquent" for his refusal to concede the slavery argument to the South.
The efforts of abolitionists were not limited to Congress. For example, in 1819, James Tallmadge Jr., a first-term Democratic Republican from New York, offered a pair of anti-slavery amendments to a Missouri statehood bill. One amendment outlawed the introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude into Missouri, while the other created a timetable for gradual emancipation.
The work of abolitionists outside of the formal political process is also worth noting. They published pamphlets containing petitions, letters, and other documents advocating for the freedom and rights of slaves. One such petition was written by a slave named Felix from the Massachusetts colony, who spoke of the "unhappy State and Condition" in which enslaved persons were forced to live.
The Thirteenth Amendment was the culmination of the tireless efforts of abolitionists within and outside of Congress, and it finally granted freedom to all slaves in the United States.
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Civil War Amendments
The Reconstruction Amendments, also known as the Civil War Amendments, are the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution, which were adopted between 1865 and 1870. These amendments were a part of the implementation of the Reconstruction of the American South following the Civil War.
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, was proposed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865. The 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". The 13th Amendment was passed at the end of the Civil War before the Southern states had been restored to the Union. While the Senate passed it in April 1864, the House initially did not. President Abraham Lincoln then took an active role to ensure its passage through Congress, and his efforts were successful when the House passed the bill in January 1865 with a vote of 119-56.
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection under the law for all persons. It was proposed by Congress on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868. The amendment states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside". It also includes provisions to protect the rights and privileges of citizens, such as due process and equal protection under the law.
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment prohibits discrimination in voting rights based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". It was proposed in 1869 and ratified in 1870. This amendment was intended to guarantee the voting rights of African Americans and to protect their right to participate in the democratic process.
The Civil War Amendments were a significant step towards guaranteeing freedom and civil rights for formerly enslaved individuals and their descendants, and towards transforming the United States from a country that was, in Abraham Lincoln's words, "half slave and half free".
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Frequently asked questions
The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, passed on January 31, 1865, abolished slavery in the United States.
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."
Many people, including Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, believe that the US Constitution's biggest flaw was its protection of the institution of slavery.
