Abolishing Slavery: The Constitution's Moral Compass

The abolition of slavery in the United States was a long and arduous process, with several key figures and events contributing to its eventual eradication. The issue of slavery was a contentious topic during the drafting of the Constitution, with some framers owning slaves and others harbouring moral qualms. While the word slave was notably absent from the document, slavery received important protections, such as the Three-Fifths Clause, which gave southern states extra representation. Over time, tensions between pro-slavery and abolitionist forces escalated, leading to conflicts and influential pieces of legislation, such as the 1852 novel *Uncle Tom's Cabin* and the 1857 Dred Scott decision. The election of Abraham Lincoln, an opponent of slavery expansion, further fuelled tensions, resulting in the secession of southern states and the Civil War. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 freed millions of slaves, but its postwar status was uncertain, and it did not apply to border states. The 13th Amendment, passed in 1865, finally abolished slavery in the United States, ensuring that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude would exist within its jurisdiction.

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The 13th Amendment

The Constitution, ratified in 1787, included several provisions that implicitly recognised and protected slavery, such as the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted three-fifths of each state's slave population for representation purposes, giving Southern states greater representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. While some delegates to the Constitutional Convention, such as Luther Martin of Maryland, argued against the inclusion of slavery, it was ultimately sidestepped to gain the support of Southern delegates.

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, tensions between the North and South escalated due to various factors, including the publication of the anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and John Brown's attempt to start a slave revolt at Harpers Ferry in 1859. The election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860, on a platform opposing the expansion of slavery into Western territories, led to the secession of Southern states and the formation of the Confederate States of America.

During the Civil War, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring the freedom of slaves in Confederate-controlled areas. However, it did not end slavery in border states that remained in the Union, and its postwar legality was uncertain. Recognising this, Lincoln and Congress worked towards a constitutional amendment to permanently abolish slavery. The 13th Amendment was passed by the Senate in April 1864 and, after legislative manoeuvring, by the House in January 1865.

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation

Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the US approached its third year of civil war. The Proclamation declared:

> that all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.

Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. In it, he referenced two 1862 statutes: "An Act to Make an Additional Article of War" and the Confiscation Act of 1862. However, he did not mention any statute in the Final Emancipation Proclamation.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a wartime measure and a military strategy. Lincoln issued it in his joint capacity as President and Commander-in-Chief. It only applied to states that had rebelled against the Union, leaving slavery in place in the loyal border states. It also exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Union control, including specific jurisdictions in Virginia, New Orleans, and 13 named parishes of Louisiana. These exemptions left an additional 300,000 slaves unemancipated.

Despite these limitations, the Emancipation Proclamation was a significant milestone in the road to the destruction of slavery. It added moral force to the Union cause and strengthened the Union militarily and politically. It also allowed for former slaves to join the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 Black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union.

Lincoln recognised that the Emancipation Proclamation would need to be followed by a constitutional amendment to guarantee the abolition of slavery. The 13th Amendment was passed at the end of the Civil War, before the Southern states had been restored to the Union. It abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, except as punishment for a crime.

Abolitionism and the US Constitution

The US Constitution did not explicitly mention slavery but included provisions about unfree persons. The framers consciously avoided using the word "slavery", but slavery received important protections in the Constitution. For example, the notorious three-fifths clause gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. The framers believed that concessions on slavery were necessary to gain the support of southern delegates for a strong central government.

Some abolitionists considered the Constitution a pro-slavery document. On the 200th anniversary of its ratification, Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, called the Constitution "defective from the start". He criticised the framers for leaving out a majority of Americans when they wrote the phrase, "We the People".

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.

The words "slave" and "slavery" are notably absent from the clause, similar to other references to slavery in the Constitution. The clause was further reinforced by the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court case, which prevented abolitionists from using the Fifth Amendment to argue against slavery.

The Thirteenth Amendment, passed in 1865, abolished slavery and rendered the Fugitive Slave Clause mostly irrelevant.

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The Three-Fifths Compromise

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. This effectively gave the Southern states more representation in the House and more votes in the Electoral College. The Three-Fifths Compromise is part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution.

Abolitionist John Brown

John Brown was an American abolitionist active in the decades preceding the Civil War. He was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut, and belonged to a devout family with extreme anti-slavery views. Brown's father, Owen, was a leading and wealthy citizen of Hudson, Ohio, an abolitionist, and an advocate of "forcible resistance by the slaves." Owen participated in Hudson's anti-slavery activity and offered a safe house to Underground Railroad fugitives. John Brown's mother, Ruth, died in December 1808, and he wrote in his memoir that he mourned her for years.

Brown studied at the school of the abolitionist Elizur Wright in nearby Tallmadge. According to Brown's son-in-law, Henry Thompson, Brown decided to dedicate his life to improving the condition of African Americans when he was 12 years old. He witnessed the beating of a "colored boy" with an iron shovel and was told it was because he was a slave. At 16, Brown left his family for New England to acquire a liberal education and become a Gospel minister. He accompanied local Native Americans on hunting excursions and invited them to eat in his home.

In November 1837, Brown was deeply upset by the murder of Elijah Parish Lovejoy, who was killed for printing an abolitionist newspaper in Alton, Illinois. Brown became more militant in his behavior and publicly vowed: "Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!" Brown was an evangelical Christian with strong religious convictions, believing he was "an instrument of God," raised to strike the "death blow" to slavery in the United States.

Brown was a conductor on the Underground Railroad and established the League of Gileadites, an organization that helped runaway slaves escape to Canada. He moved to the free black farming community of North Elba, New York, in 1849. In response to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas, Brown led a group of men to Pottawatomie Creek in 1856, where they murdered five unarmed men and boys believed to be slavery proponents. Brown was the leading exponent of violence in the American abolitionist movement, believing it necessary after decades of peaceful efforts had failed.

In 1859, Brown rented the Kennedy Farmhouse, four miles north of Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). He trained a 21-man army and planned to capture the Federal Arsenal to provide slaves in the area with weapons. Brown believed that these armed slaves would join his army and free more slaves as they moved southward. However, the raid on October 16, 1859, was unsuccessful, and Brown was captured, tried, and executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia. He was found guilty of murder, inciting slave insurrection, and treason against Virginia. Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859, and his final words prophesied that the "crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood."

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