The Constitution's Slavery Compromise: Why It Happened

The new constitution did not abolish slavery because of the deep tension between the practice of slavery and the notion in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. The drafters of the Constitution were aware of the immorality of slavery and the need for action, but they were also conscious of the economic and societal significance of slavery in the United States at the time. The word slave does not appear in the Constitution, and the framers avoided it, recognizing that it would sully the document. Instead, they used terms like the Importation of Persons Clause and the Three-Fifths Clause, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation, giving the South more representation in the House and extra votes in the Electoral College. The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years and included a Fugitive Slave Clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. These provisions reflected a compromise between Northern and Southern states that was essential for the ratification of the Constitution and the formation of the Union, but ultimately, this compromise was unsustainable, as demonstrated by the Civil War.

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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 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. This gave slaveholders similarly enlarged powers in Southern legislatures, and this was an issue in the secession of West Virginia from Virginia in 1863.

The Fugitive Slave Clause

The clause was unanimously approved by the Convention without debate, despite objections from James Wilson and Roger Sherman, who argued that it would require the state to seize fugitive slaves at public expense. Interestingly, the words "slave" and "slavery" are not mentioned in the clause. Historian Donald Fehrenbacher believes that this was a deliberate choice to avoid explicitly sanctioning slavery at the federal level.

The Civil War and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation

The American Civil War was a conflict between the northern and southern states of America, which lasted from 1861 to 1865. The war was fought primarily over the issue of slavery, with the southern states, known as the Confederacy, seeking to preserve slavery, and the northern states, known as the Union, seeking to end it.

During the war, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a presidential proclamation and executive order, on January 1, 1863. The proclamation declared that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious Confederate states were now free. The proclamation had the effect of changing the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans, allowing them to escape to Union lines and join the Union Army.

Lincoln had first presented a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet in July 1862, but it was not until after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in September that he felt he had the authority to issue the proclamation. The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was issued on September 22, 1862, with the final proclamation following on January 1, 1863.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a significant milestone in the long process of ending legal slavery in the United States. It shifted the purpose of the Civil War from preserving the Union to ending slavery and set a course for how the nation would be reshaped after the conflict. However, it was limited in its scope, as it only applied to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery in place in the border states that had remained loyal.

After the war, there were concerns that the Emancipation Proclamation might be reversed or found invalid. As a result, Lincoln supported efforts to pass a constitutional amendment that would permanently abolish slavery. On April 8, 1864, the Senate passed an amendment to abolish slavery, and the House of Representatives followed suit on January 31, 1865. The 13th Amendment was officially certified and accepted into the Constitution on December 18, 1865, and chattel slavery was banned and declared illegal in the United States and its territories.

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The Constitution's ambiguous language

The US Constitution, drafted in 1787, was a document that sought, as Abraham Lincoln contended, to put "slavery in the course of ultimate extinction". Indeed, the Constitution's language is "We the People; not we the white people". However, the document's ambiguity on the issue of slavery, and its failure to explicitly abolish it, is a matter of historical debate.

The word "slave" does not appear in the Constitution, and the document's provisions related to slavery do not use the word "slavery". For example, the "Importation of Persons Clause" in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1, prohibited the federal government from limiting the importation of "persons" where existing state governments allowed it, without explicitly mentioning who these "persons" were. Similarly, the "Three-Fifths Clause" in Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3, provided that apportionment of representatives would be based on the population of "free persons" and "three-fifths of all other persons", without explicitly referring to slaves.

The ambiguity of the Constitution's language regarding slavery was likely a compromise between Northern and Southern states. Slavery was a major component of the economy and society in the United States at the time, particularly in the South, where it was pivotal to the economy. The drafters of the Constitution may have wanted to avoid suggesting that slavery was recognised under federal law, instead leaving it to exist only as a result of state laws.

The ambiguity of the Constitution's language on slavery had significant consequences. The document provided important protections for slavery, including the Three-Fifths Clause, which gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College. The Constitution also included a Fugitive Slave Clause, requiring the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years.

The ambiguity and failure to abolish slavery in the Constitution laid the foundation for future conflict. As Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, noted, the framers of the Constitution "consented to a document which laid the foundation for the tragic events which were to follow". It would take the Civil War, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution to officially abolish slavery in the United States.

The Southern states' economy and society

When the US Constitution was drafted in 1787, slavery was a major component of the economy and society in the Southern states. The Southern states' economy was heavily dependent on slavery, with enslaved people making up around a third of the Southern population. The Southern states needed this compromised deal to protect their economy, which was built on racial oppression.

The Southern states' economy was dependent on the labour of enslaved people, particularly in agriculture. The Southern states had large plantations that relied on slave labour to produce crops such as cotton, tobacco, and sugar. Without enslaved people to work on these plantations, the Southern economy would suffer a significant blow.

The Southern states also profited from the international slave trade. The importation of enslaved people from Africa was a lucrative business for the Southern states, and they wanted to ensure they could continue this trade for as long as possible. The 20-year grace period before the federal government could regulate the slave trade was crucial for the Southern states to maintain their economic power.

The Southern states' society was also deeply rooted in slavery. Enslaved people were considered property, and the idea of slavery as a caste system was prevalent. The Southern states believed in the inferiority of enslaved people, justifying their oppression and exploitation. This ideology was reflected in the Confederate Constitution of 1861, which stated, "No law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed."

The Southern states' resistance to change was strong, and they were unwilling to accept the abolition of slavery without a fight. They knew that abolishing slavery would significantly impact their economy and society, and they were not ready to make those changes. This resistance led to the Civil War and the eventual abolition of slavery through the 13th Amendment in 1865.

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