The Constitution's Outlawed Practice: 1808'S Legacy

The US Constitution's Importation of Persons Clause or Slave Trade Clause in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1, prohibited Congress from passing any law that restricted the importation of slaves into the United States before 1808. This clause, which did not explicitly mention slavery or slaves, was irrelevant after 1808 when Congress approved legislation prohibiting the importation of slaves.

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The Slave Trade Clause

> "The migration or importation of such persons as the several states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the legislature prior to the year 1808."

It is notable that the Constitution does not explicitly mention "slavery" or "slaves" in this clause, instead referring to the "importation of persons". Additionally, the clause does not grant Congress the power to restrict the slave trade but rather places a restriction on Congress's ability to act until 1808.

In the years leading up to 1808, popular support for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery itself grew both within the United States and internationally. Congress passed statutes regulating the trade in slaves by US ships in the 1790s, and other countries, including the United Kingdom, also passed legislation restricting the slave trade.

On January 1, 1808, the first day it was permitted to do so, Congress approved legislation prohibiting the importation of slaves into the country. This legislation was signed by President Thomas Jefferson and entered into force in 1808, rendering the Slave Trade Clause irrelevant except as a historical curiosity.

The Importation Clause

> "The migration or importation of such persons as the several states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the legislature prior to the year 1808."

It is notable that the Constitution does not explicitly mention "slavery" or "slaves" in this clause, instead referring to the "importation of persons". However, the historical context and other provisions within the Constitution, such as the Three-Fifths Clause, indicate that this clause was specifically related to the slave trade.

In the years leading up to 1808, there was increasing popular support for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery itself, both within the United States and internationally. Congress passed statutes regulating the trade in slaves by US ships in the 1790s, and international pressure mounted as other countries, such as the United Kingdom, also restricted the slave trade. Despite this growing momentum, the Importation Clause ensured that Congress could not act to prohibit the importation of slaves until 1808, 20 years after the ratification of the Constitution.

On January 1, 1808, the first day it was permitted to do so, Congress approved legislation prohibiting the importation of slaves into the country. This legislation was signed by President Thomas Jefferson the previous year, in 1807, and it entered into force in 1808. This marked a significant step towards the eventual abolition of slavery in the United States, demonstrating that the intentions of the Founding Fathers "were good", as Frederick Douglass later argued.

The Three-Fifths Clause

The Three-Fifths Compromise, also known as the Constitutional Compromise of 1787, was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention. This convention addressed the inclusion of slaves in counting a state's total population. This 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.

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, on the other hand, wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, since those slaves had no voting rights. A compromise was struck to resolve this impasse, counting three-fifths of each state's slave population toward that state's total population for the purpose of apportioning the House of Representatives. This effectively 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 "other Persons" referred to in this clause were slaves.

The Three-Fifths Compromise was a highly contested aspect of the Constitution, provoking debate during the year-long struggle over its ratification. It was ultimately superseded and repealed by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which provided that "representatives shall be apportioned... counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed."

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Congress's power to restrict the slave trade

The practice outlawed by the US Constitution as of 1808 was the importation of slaves into the United States.

The US Constitution, as originally written, did not outlaw slavery. In fact, it included several provisions that implicitly recognised and protected the practice of slavery. These included the Three-Fifths Clause in Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3, which provided that apportionment of representatives would be based on the population of free persons and "three-fifths of all other persons". The "other persons" in this context referred to enslaved African individuals, who made up a significant portion of the population in the Southern states.

However, the Constitution did include a provision known as the Slave Trade Clause or the Importation Clause, which prohibited Congress from enacting any legislation that would restrict the importation of slaves until 1808. This clause, found in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1, stated that:

> "The migration or importation of such persons as the several states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the legislature prior to the year 1808."

This clause was included as a compromise between delegates who wanted to immediately ban the slave trade and those who wanted to continue it indefinitely. The compromise allowed for a 20-year period during which the importation of slaves would be permitted, after which Congress would have the authority to restrict it.

In the years leading up to 1808, public support for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery itself grew, both in the United States and internationally. Congress passed statutes regulating the trade in slaves by US ships, and other countries, like the United Kingdom, also passed legislation restricting the slave trade, increasing pressure on the US to act.

Finally, on January 1, 1808, the first day it was permitted to do so, Congress approved legislation prohibiting the importation of slaves, which was signed into law by President Thomas Jefferson. This marked a significant step towards the eventual abolition of slavery in the United States, demonstrating the increasing recognition that slavery was incompatible with the principles of freedom and equality enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.

The expiration of Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1

Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 of the US Constitution, also known as the "Importation of Persons Clause" or the "Slave Trade Clause", expired in 1808. This clause prevented Congress from passing any law that would restrict the importation of slaves into the United States prior to 1808.

The inclusion of this clause in the Constitution was a compromise reached by the delegates at the Constitutional Convention, who were grappling with the issue of slavery. While some delegates, particularly those from the South, wanted to protect the slave trade, others recognised the moral and ethical issues surrounding slavery and sought to eventually end the practice. As a result, the clause was included with a built-in expiration date, after which the federal government would be allowed to restrict the importation of slaves.

During the 20-year period before the clause's expiration, popular support for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery itself increased, both in the United States and internationally. Congress passed statutes regulating the trade in slaves by US ships, and other countries also passed legislation restricting the slave trade, increasing pressure on the United States to curb the practice.

On January 1, 1808, the first day it was permitted to do so, Congress approved legislation prohibiting the importation of slaves into the country. This legislation was signed by President Thomas Jefferson and rendered the Slave Trade Clause constitutionally irrelevant, except as a historical curiosity. The expiration of this clause and the subsequent prohibition of the slave trade represented a significant step towards the eventual abolition of slavery in the United States.

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