The Us Outlawed Slave Trade: Constitutional Amendments

The US outlawed the slave trade with the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which came into effect on January 1, 1808. This was the earliest date permitted by the US Constitution, which included a clause preventing Congress from outlawing the slave trade for 20 years. The Constitution, drafted in 1787, did not use the word slavery and only obliquely referred to the practice, reflecting the framers' moral qualms and desire to avoid a permanent moral stain on the document. The 1808 Act imposed heavy penalties on international traders but did not end slavery or the domestic sale of slaves.

Explore related products

The SLAVE TRADE: THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE: 1440 - 1870

$16.99 $30

History of the Slave Trade: The Origins of the Slave Trade and Its Impacts Throughout History and the Present Day (Fox Chapel Publishing) Slavery in America and the Fight for Freedom (Visual History)

$19.99 $19.99

The Forgotten Slave Trade: The White European Slaves of Islam

$22.57 $26.95

African American History: An Enthralling Overview of African American Heritage, the Atlantic Slave Trade, and the Underground Railroad (Exploring the Past)

$16.94 $7.95

Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History)

$29.95 $37

African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame

$16.32 $24

The US Constitution's 'Importation of Persons Clause'

The US Constitution's Importation of Persons Clause, also known as the Slave Trade Clause, is outlined in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 of the Constitution. This clause is one of a handful of provisions in the original Constitution that pertained to slavery, although the word "slavery" or "slave" is notably absent from the text.

The Importation of Persons Clause states:

> "The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person."

This clause prohibited the federal government from restricting the importation of "persons" (which was understood to refer primarily to enslaved African individuals) into states that allowed slavery, until 20 years after the Constitution came into effect. It was a compromise between Southern states, where slavery was central to the economy, and states that had already abolished or were considering abolishing slavery.

The Importation of Persons Clause reflects the tension between the practice of slavery and the Declaration of Independence's assertion that "all men are created equal". It is speculated that the drafters of the Constitution may have been reluctant to use the word "slavery" or that they wanted to avoid suggesting that slavery was recognised under federal law.

The clause became constitutionally irrelevant after it expired in 1808, coinciding with the enactment of the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves. This act criminalised the importation of slaves into the United States, marking a significant step towards the abolition of the international slave trade.

The 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves

The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, passed on March 2, 1807, was a landmark piece of legislation that prohibited the importation of slaves into the United States. The Act, also known as the Slave Trade Act of 1807, was promoted by President Thomas Jefferson and took effect on January 1, 1808, the earliest date permitted by the United States Constitution.

The Act was a significant step towards abolishing the international slave trade, reflecting a general trend towards ending the practice. It made it a federal crime to import slaves from abroad, even on foreign ships. However, it is important to note that the Act did not criminalize American ships involved in the slave trade, as that had already been prohibited by the Slave Trade Act of 1794.

While the 1807 Act was a crucial step, it did not end slavery or the domestic sale and trade of slaves within the United States. The domestic slave trade actually increased in importance after the Act, as the legal supply of imported slaves was terminated. Additionally, some states, like South Carolina, had reopened the transatlantic slave trade in the early 1800s, and smuggling of slaves into the country continued despite the Act.

The Act imposed heavy penalties on international slave traders, but enforcement proved challenging. While there are no exact figures, historians estimate that tens of thousands of slaves were illegally imported into the United States after 1808, mainly through Spanish Florida and Texas. The Navy's role was expanded to include patrols off the coasts of Cuba and South America to help enforce the Act, but illegal slave importation persisted.

Overall, the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 was a significant step towards ending slavery in the United States, but it did not completely eradicate the practice. It took further legislation and enforcement efforts to address the ongoing issue of slavery and the slave trade in the country.

The Three-Fifths Clause

The Three-Fifths Compromise, also known as the Three-Fifths Clause or the Constitutional Compromise of 1787, was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention. It concerned 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 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. 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.

The three-fifths ratio originated with an amendment proposed to the Articles of Confederation on April 18, 1783. The amendment was to change the basis for determining the wealth of each state, and hence its tax obligations, from real estate to population, as a measure of ability to produce wealth. The proposal suggested that taxes "shall be supplied by the several colonies in proportion to the number of inhabitants of every age, sex, and quality, except Indians not paying taxes". However, this amendment ultimately failed, falling two states short of the unanimous approval required to amend the Articles of Confederation.

Congress finally settled on the three-fifths ratio proposed by James Madison. Madison explained the reasoning for the three-fifths ratio in Federalist No. 54, "The Apportionment of Members Among the States" (February 12, 1788). He argued that slaves were considered as persons and not merely as property, and therefore representation should relate more immediately to persons, while taxation should relate more immediately to property.

In 1868, Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment superseded Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 and explicitly repealed the Three-Fifths Compromise. It provides that "representatives shall be apportioned... counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed."

Explore related products

The African Slave Trade

$21.99

The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717

$29.39 $31.95

Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World

$29.95 $35

The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Captivating Guide to the Atlantic Slave Trade and Stories of the Slaves That Were Brought to the Americas (History of Slavery)

$13.59 $14.95

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts

$14.09 $19.99

Black History Book: REVEALED - The True Identity of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Victims (The Call to the Hebrews)

$15

Fugitive Slave Clause

The Fugitive Slave Clause, also known as the Slave Clause or the Fugitives From Labour Clause, was a part of the United States Constitution. It was adopted at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and remained in effect until 1864, during the Civil War. The clause was included in Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution and addressed slavery without explicitly mentioning the word "slave" or "slavery".

The clause stated that:

> "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."

In simpler terms, this clause required that any "Person held to Service or Labour" (usually a slave, apprentice, or indentured servant) who fled to another state must be returned to their master or owner in the state from which they escaped. The intent behind the clause was to ensure that slaveholders had the right to reclaim their enslaved persons who had escaped to another state. This was particularly important to Southern states, where slavery was a pivotal part of the economy.

The Fugitive Slave Clause was controversial and had a significant impact on Black communities in the North. The vague wording of the clause enabled the kidnapping of free African Americans, who were then illegally enslaved. This systemic abuse was highlighted by the case of Solomon Northup, a free man abducted in Washington, D.C., and enslaved in Louisiana for twelve years.

The clause faced increasing resistance from Northern states in the 19th century, especially after the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Several Northern states enacted "personal liberty laws" to protect their Black residents from kidnapping and provide procedural safeguards for accused fugitives. This resistance further polarised public opinion and led to legal challenges, such as in the case of Ableman v. Booth (1859).

The Fugitive Slave Clause was eventually rendered mostly irrelevant by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery "except as a punishment for crime".

The Slave Trade Act of 1794

The Act made it illegal for American ships to participate in the slave trade. It prohibited citizens from building, fitting, equipping, loading, or otherwise preparing any ship or vessel within any port or place in the United States for the purpose of carrying on the slave trade. The Act also made it illegal to cause any ship to sail from any port or place within the United States for the purpose of procuring inhabitants from any foreign country to be sold or disposed of as slaves.

Frequently asked questions