Omar Bennett
The U.S. Constitution prohibited Congress from banning the slave trade for 20 years, until 1808, as part of a compromise between Southern and Northern states. The Importation Clause, or Article I, Section 9, prevented Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade until 1808, and the Three-Fifths Clause gave Southern states extra representation in the House of Representatives. The Constitution also included a Fugitive Slave Clause, requiring the return of runaway slaves to their owners. While some argue the Constitution strengthened slavery, others claim it created a central government powerful enough to eventually abolish it.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Reason for the 1808 date | A compromise between Southern states, where slavery was pivotal to the economy, and states where abolition of slavery had been accomplished or contemplated |
| Constitution's stance on slavery | Protected slavery in the states, prohibited Congress from banning the slave trade for 20 years, and required that fugitive slaves, even in the North, be returned to their masters |
| Constitution's wording | Avoided the words "slave" and "slavery", referring to slaves as persons |
| Constitution's clauses related to slavery | Three-Fifths Clause, ban on Congress ending the slave trade for twenty years, the fugitive slave clause, and the slave insurrections |
| Congress's power to ban slave trade | Could not ban the slave trade prior to 1808, but could tax enslaved Africans as property |
| Congress's power to restrict slave trade | Did not grant Congress the power to restrict the slave trade, but Congress used foreign and interstate commerce powers in Article 1, Section 8 to do so |
| Date of Congress's ban on importation of slaves | 1807 |
| Date of Congress's ban taking effect | 1st January 1808 |
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What You'll Learn
The Constitution's Slave Trade Clause
The Slave Trade Clause, also known as the Importation Clause, is the second clause of Article I, Section 9 of the US Constitution. It prohibited the federal government from banning the importation of slaves for 20 years after the Constitution took effect, i.e. until 1808.
The clause was a compromise between the Southern states, where slavery was pivotal to the economy, and the Northern states, where slavery had been abolished or was in the process of being abolished. The Southern states agreed to the clause in exchange for the removal of a restriction on the national government's power to enact laws requiring goods to be shipped on American vessels.
The clause was carefully worded to avoid the use of the word "slave", instead referring to "such persons". This was because the framers of the Constitution believed that slavery was morally wrong and wanted to avoid sullying the document with references to it. They also believed that slavery would eventually die out and so did not want to enshrine it in the Constitution.
Despite the eventual ban on the importation of slaves in 1808, slavery continued to flourish in the South, and the domestic trade in enslaved persons continued. The controversy over slavery and the Constitution ultimately led to the Civil War, which was fought to free the slaves and end slavery in the US.
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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, on the other hand, wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, since those slaves had no voting rights. The framers of the Constitution continued to privilege the maintenance of unity of the new United States over the eradication of slavery by resolving to defuse sectional tensions over the matter.
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 slaveholding states disproportionate representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College.
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The Fugitive Slave Clause
The exact wording of the clause 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.
It is important to note that the words "slave" and "slavery" are not used in this clause, similar to other references to slavery in the Constitution. Historian Donald Fehrenbacher believes that this was intentional, as the framers of the Constitution wanted to make it clear that slavery was a matter of state law, not federal law. He points to a last-minute change in the clause, where the phrase ""legally held to service or labour in one state" was changed to "held to service or labour in one state, under the laws thereof". This revision prevented the Constitution from being interpreted as legally sanctioning slavery.
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The expiration of the clause in 1808
Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution stated: “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 avoided the use of the word "slave", referring instead to "such persons", although it was understood at the time to mean primarily enslaved African persons.
The compromise was reached in 1787, and in the intervening 20 years, popular support for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery itself increased in the United States and other countries. In 1807, Congress passed a statute prohibiting the importation of slaves as of January 1, 1808, which was signed by President Thomas Jefferson. This marked the end of the constitutional protection of the slave trade, and the beginning of the federal government's ability to restrict it.
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The role of Southern states
The Southern states also benefited from the Three-Fifths Clause, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation. This gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and additional votes in the Electoral College. This compromise was seen as a way to gain the support of Southern delegates for a strong central government.
The Southern states' influence can also be seen in the Fugitive Slave Clause, which required the return of runaway slaves to their owners, and the Slave Insurrection Clause, which gave the federal government the power to put down slave rebellions.
The Southern politicians also wanted enslaved African Americans to be counted as "persons" for congressional representation, which would give them more power due to their larger populations. This was opposed by Northern politicians who feared it would give too much power to the South.
Overall, the Southern states played a critical role in shaping the Constitution's approach to slavery, ensuring that their economic interests were protected and that the power of the central government was limited in regards to restricting slavery until 1808.
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Frequently asked questions
The Constitution prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years as part of a compromise between Southern and other states. Southern states, where slavery was pivotal to the economy, agreed to the compromise in exchange for a 20-year ban on any restrictions on the Atlantic slave trade.
In 1808, two decades after the Constitution's ratification, Congress prohibited importing enslaved persons from other countries. On January 1, 1808, the 1807 bill that President Thomas Jefferson signed went into effect.
The controversy was settled by the so-called "Great Compromise", which addressed the states' fear of an imbalance of power in Congress. The compromise allowed for a bicameral legislature with proportional representation based on a state's population for one chamber and equal state representation in the other.
The Three-Fifths Clause was a cornerstone of the Great Compromise. It counted three-fifths of all other "Persons", including enslaved persons, for the purposes of apportioning seats in the House of Representatives and levying certain types of taxes.
