Malcolm Rivera
The original US Constitution, ratified in 1787, included several provisions related to slavery, despite not using the words slavery or slave. The most notable of these was the Three-Fifths Clause, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation, giving Southern states with large slave populations greater representation in the House of Representatives and more votes in the Electoral College. Additionally, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1, known as the Slave Trade Clause, prohibited the federal government from interfering with the importation of slaves for 20 years. This clause was included to gain the support of Southern delegates, who threatened to refuse to join the Union if the Constitution restricted the slave trade. The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, finally abolished slavery in the United States, making it illegal to own slaves except as punishment for a crime.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Clause in Constitution related to slavery | Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 |
| Clause prohibits | Federal government from limiting the importation of "persons" |
| Time period of prohibition | 20 years after the Constitution took effect |
| Year of expiration | 1808 |
| Year of ratification of 13th Amendment | 1865 |
| What 13th Amendment provides | "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." |
| Three-Fifths Clause | Counts three-fifths of a state's slave population in apportioning representation |
| Fugitive Slave Clause | Requires the return of runaway slaves to their owners |
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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. Eventually, the framers agreed on a compromise that called for representation in the House of Representatives to be apportioned on the basis of a state’s free population plus three-fifths of its enslaved population. This agreement came to be known as the Three-Fifths Compromise.
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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. It requires that a "person held to Service or Labour" (usually a slave, apprentice, or indentured servant) who flees to another state must be returned to their master in the state from which they escaped. The clause was adopted at the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
The exact wording of the clause is:
> 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 enacted to give slaveholders the right to reclaim their enslaved people who had escaped to another state. The Supreme Court interpreted the clause as granting slave owners the same right to seize and repossess their escaped slaves in another state as the local laws of their own state granted to them. This interpretation meant that state laws that penalized such a seizure were deemed unconstitutional.
Despite the Fugitive Slave Clause's constitutional authority, resistance to its enforcement in the North increased in the 19th century, especially after the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Several Northern states enacted "personal liberty laws" to protect free Black residents from kidnapping and provide procedural safeguards for accused fugitives. For example, Massachusetts prohibited state officials from assisting in fugitive slave renditions and banned the use of state facilities for holding alleged fugitives.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was effectively nullified by the Thirteenth Amendment's abolition of slavery, rendering the clause mostly irrelevant.
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The 13th Amendment
> "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. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
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The Slave Trade Clause
The Three-Fifths Clause, located in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, is another provision in the original Constitution related to slavery. This clause stated that when a state's population was counted for representation in government and direct taxation, the enslaved population would be counted as three-fifths of its overall number. This gave Southern states with large slave populations extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College.
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Abolition of slavery
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery in the United States and its territories. This amendment, which was the first of three Reconstruction Amendments, stated that "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". This marked a significant turning point in the nation's history, as chattel slavery and several other forms of bound labour and servitude were banned.
The road to the abolition of slavery in the United States was long and complex. The Constitution, ratified in 1787, did not specifically mention the word "slavery" or "slave", but it included several provisions related to slavery. One of the most notable was the Three-Fifths Clause, which counted three-fifths of a state's slave population when apportioning representation, giving the South more power in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. Additionally, the Fugitive Slave Clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners.
The Constitution also included a compromise that prohibited Congress from interfering with the importation of "persons" (which at the time referred to enslaved African persons) for 20 years after the Constitution took effect. This compromise was made between the Southern states, where slavery was crucial to the economy, and states that had already abolished or were contemplating abolishing slavery. This 20-year period ended in 1808, and in that year, Congress prohibited the importation of enslaved persons from other countries.
In the decades leading up to the Civil War, tensions rose as abolitionists and proponents of slavery debated the status of slavery in new U.S. territories. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all persons held as slaves in states in rebellion against the United States would be "forever free". However, this proclamation did not end slavery across the nation, as it only applied to areas of the Confederacy in rebellion and not to the "border states" that remained in the Union. It became clear that a constitutional amendment was necessary to truly abolish slavery.
The 13th Amendment provided that final constitutional solution, ensuring that slavery would no longer exist within the United States and its jurisdictions. This amendment, along with the 14th and 15th Amendments, greatly expanded the civil rights of Americans and marked a significant step towards a more just and equitable society.
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Frequently asked questions
Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 of the US Constitution, also known as the Slave Trade Clause, prohibited the federal government from limiting the importation of "persons" into states that allowed slavery for 20 years after the Constitution took effect. This clause expired in 1808, after which Congress abolished the international trade of slaves.
The 20-year clause allowed the southern states to continue importing slaves, which was pivotal to their economy. This resulted in the continuation of slavery in the US, even after the 20-year period ended. The clause also gave rise to the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College.
No, slavery was not abolished after the 20-year period ended in 1808. It was only in 1865, 57 years after the end of the 20-year period, that the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery. This amendment stated that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime... shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
