Isabella Carter
The US Constitution is one of the most important documents in the history of the United States, but it has been controversial since its inception, especially regarding its stance on slavery. The Constitution, which was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788, did not contain the word slave, but it included references and protections for slavery. The Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation, gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. The Constitution also included the Fugitive Slave Clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and banned Congress from ending the slave trade for twenty years. These compromises were made to maintain a united country, but they had serious consequences, including a bloody Civil War and the spread of slavery in the South. The Constitution's ambiguity on slavery and its protection of states' rights to regulate slavery have been interpreted differently across the political spectrum, with some seeing it as a pro-slavery document and others as a foundation for the eventual abolition of slavery.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| The Three-Fifths Clause | The Three-Fifths Compromise stated that representatives and direct taxes would be apportioned among the states according to the number of free persons and "three-fifths of all other persons." |
| The Fugitive Slave Clause | "No Person held to Service or labor in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another ... shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or labor may be due." |
| The Missouri Compromise | Banned slavery in the northern part of the Louisiana Territory. |
| The Compromise of 1850 | Outlawed the slave trade and contributed to the spread of liberty and equality. |
| The Kansas-Nebraska Act | N/A |
| The Thirteenth Amendment | Ended slavery in the United States forever. |
| The word "slave" does not appear in the Constitution | The Framers consciously avoided the word, recognizing that it would sully the document. |
| The Constitution was a pro-slavery document | Radical abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison called the Constitution a "covenant with death" and an "agreement with hell." |
| The Constitution was an anti-slavery document | Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass called the Constitution a "glorious liberty document" and believed it supported anti-slavery principles. |
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What You'll Learn
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, on the other hand, wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, since those slaves had no voting rights. The compromise struck 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.
The controversy over slavery in the Constitution was ultimately settled by compromise. In exchange for a 20-year ban on any restrictions on the Atlantic slave trade, southern delegates agreed to remove a clause restricting the national government's power to enact laws requiring goods to be shipped on American vessels. On the same day, the convention also adopted the Fugitive Slave Clause, requiring the return of runaway slaves to their owners.
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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 requires that any "Person held to Service or Labour" (usually a slave, apprentice, or indentured servant) who escapes to another state must be returned to their master in the state from which they fled. The exact wording 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 was unanimously approved by the Convention without further debate, despite objections from James Wilson and Roger Sherman, who argued that it would oblige state executives to seize fugitive slaves at public expense. The clause was also included in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which abolished slavery in the Territory while providing for the return of fugitive slaves who had escaped there.
The Supreme Court interpreted the Fugitive Slave Clause as granting slave owners the right to seize and repossess their escaped slaves in another state, as granted to them by the local laws of their own state. This interpretation meant that any state laws that penalised such a seizure were deemed unconstitutional. The broad language of the Clause and its enforcement mechanisms enabled the kidnapping of free African Americans, who were then illegally enslaved. For example, Solomon Northup, a free man, was abducted in Washington, D.C., and enslaved in Louisiana for twelve years.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was enforced through the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, with further enforcement measures added in 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850. Resistance to the Clause's enforcement increased in the North during the 19th century, particularly after 1850. Several Northern states enacted "personal liberty laws" to protect their Black residents from kidnapping and provide safeguards for accused fugitives. However, in Ableman v. Booth (1859), the Supreme Court reversed the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision to free abolitionist Sherman Booth, who had been jailed for aiding an escaped slave. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled that states could not obstruct federal enforcement, reinforcing federal supremacy but further polarising public opinion.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was effectively nullified by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery "except as a punishment for crime". The Thirteenth Amendment was passed at the end of the Civil War and ratified on 6 December 1865, finally resolving the issue of slavery in the United States.
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Abolitionist views
The controversy over slavery in the US Constitution has been a highly debated topic, with many abolitionists viewing the document as complicit in perpetuating the practice. The Constitution, with its references to slavery and protections for enslavement, has been criticised for not living up to the ideals of liberty and equality proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence.
Abolitionists have argued that the Constitution's compromises on slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Clause and the Fugitive Slave Clause, were concessions to the South and the slave power in national politics. The Three-Fifths Clause, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population for representation, gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. This led to the election of slave owners as presidents and the passing of slave-friendly bills in Congress. The Fugitive Slave Clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners, further entrenched slavery and led to the illegal kidnapping and enslavement of free blacks.
The Constitution's ban on Congress ending the slave trade for twenty years and its failure to use the word "slave" or explicitly address the morality of slavery have also been criticised by abolitionists. They argue that these compromises strengthened slavery and contradicted the ideals of liberty and equality that the nation was founded upon. Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, called the Constitution "defective from the start" because it left out a majority of Americans with its phrase, "We the People."
Some abolitionists, like William Lloyd Garrison, went as far as to burn the Constitution, calling it "a covenant with death and an agreement with Hell." Garrison's radical views were shared by Chief Justice Roger Taney, who endorsed the idea of a pro-slavery Constitution in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857). However, abolitionist Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln disagreed, believing that the Constitution was anti-slavery and put slavery "in the course of ultimate extinction." Lincoln navigated the contradiction of "freedom national, slavery local" in his decisions, and his Emancipation Proclamation, along with the Thirteenth Amendment, eventually ended slavery in the United States.
While the Constitution's role in perpetuating slavery is undeniable, some abolitionists recognised that it also created a central government powerful enough to eventually abolish the institution. The compromises made by the Framers were a reflection of the political realities of their time, and their highest goal was to form a stronger Union of republican self-government. The specific clauses related to slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Clause, the ban on Congress ending the slave trade, the Fugitive Slave Clause, and the slave insurrections clause, were the result of intense debates and compromises. Despite the moral qualms about slavery held by many of the Framers, they had to navigate the threat of separate free and slave confederacies and sought to build a regime of liberty that would ultimately lead to slavery's extinction.
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The Missouri Compromise
The origins of the Missouri Compromise can be traced back to Missouri's request for statehood, which included restrictions on slavery. This sparked opposition from southerners who believed that slavery was a state issue and that federal restrictions should not be imposed. The Senate quickly linked the Maine and Missouri bills, making Maine's admission as a free state contingent on Missouri entering the Union as a slave state. This linkage was a compromise aimed at maintaining the balance between slave and free states.
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Civil War and the 13th Amendment
The Civil War was fought between the North and the South, with the Southern states attempting to preserve the institution of slavery. The war lasted from 1861 to 1865 and resulted in the defeat of the Confederacy and the end of slavery in the United States.
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all enslaved people in the Confederate states would be "forever free." However, this proclamation did not end slavery nationwide as it only applied to the Confederate states in rebellion against the Union.
To permanently abolish slavery, a constitutional amendment was necessary. The 13th Amendment, proposed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, achieved this goal. The amendment states: "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, along with the 14th and 15th Amendments, are known as the Civil War Amendments. These amendments greatly expanded the civil rights of Americans, particularly Black Americans, and sought to establish equality. The 13th Amendment specifically outlawed chattel slavery and involuntary servitude, with some exceptions for punishment for crimes.
The road to the ratification of the 13th Amendment was not without obstacles. While the Senate passed it in April 1864, the House initially did not. The amendment was rejected by Kentucky and Mississippi in 1865, but eventually, enough states ratified it, and slavery was officially abolished in the United States.
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Frequently asked questions
The Three-Fifths Compromise was an agreement that stated that representatives and direct taxes would be apportioned among the states according to the number of free persons and "three-fifths of all other persons". The compromise did not validate slavery nationally, but it did give the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College.
The controversy over slavery in the Constitution centred around the fact that slavery was not explicitly outlawed in the document, and that there were several clauses that seemed to protect slavery in the states, such as the Fugitive Slave Clause and the ban on Congress ending the slave trade for twenty years. The Constitution also used the term "three-fifths of all other persons" instead of "slaves", which some saw as a way to avoid recognising people as property.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was a part of the Constitution that required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. The clause did not recognise a property in man and did not give national sanction to slavery, but it did allow for the enforcement of the return of fugitive slaves.
