Categories: History

Slavery in the Constitution

As the Constitution was being developed by the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the framers chose not to address the legality of slavery in order to achieve a compromise between the north and south. Slavery was a divisive issue at the Convention, and the delegates from the north felt it would be better to ratify the Constitution than to break up the Union over it. This need for unanimity and the fear of economic repercussions from the ending of slavery caused the writers of the Constitution to write in three compromises regarding the practice of slavery but failed to address the matter as a whole.

The first, or “Great,” compromise occurred in Article I Section 2 of the Constitution. The number in the House of Representatives was determined by population, with one elected member to represent no more than 30,000 people in their respective state (Constitution, 1787). The south wanted their large slave population to count toward representation. The north disagreed, arguing that slaves were not allowed to vote and were considered property by their owners. They were concerned that the south would be over-represented in the House, also increasing their representation in the Electoral College. Realizing that the south would most likely not ratify the Constitution without their slaves counting, James Wilson of Pennsylvania proposed the 3/5 Compromise (Hickey, 1998). This allowed for each slave to be counted as 3/5 of a person for the purposes of taxation and congressional representation.

The slave trade was another source of contention for the framers. Many of them did not approve of the slave trade, but also realized that the southern states would never ratify the Constitution if the slave trade ended right away (Mount, 2007). The compromise in Article I Section 9 of the Constitution was written so that Congress could not prohibit the slave trade immediately, but would have the right to do so 20 years later.

The third compromise in the Constitution occurred in Article IV Section 2. It asserts that one state’s laws cannot excuse a person from required labor in another state and must be returned to their original state (1787). The framers chose not to use the word “slave” in their writing, but it was understood that this section applied to slaves. This satisfied the south’s concerns that the north would be a safe haven for escaped slaves.

There were also economic reasons why the framers avoided slavery in the Constitution. Southern plantation owners chose slavery for their labor-it seemed to them the cheapest solution to meet their plantation’s needs. While the south thrived with slaves as their workforce, the north saw their own benefits from slavery. Although the northern states turned away from practicing slavery with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, much of their economy was based on marketing, manufacturing, and shipping many of the goods grown by slaves in the south (Was slavery the engine, 2009). The north also remained actively involved in slave trade up to the Civil War (Harper, 2003). In this way, both the north and the south were able to build themselves economically through the institution of slavery. The emerging nation relied on a slave economy as a means to rapid growth.

The failure to address slavery in the Constitution by providing meager compromises did little to calm a growing chasm between the abolitionists and the plantation owners of the deep south; it only delayed the confrontation. The need for unanimous ratification of the Constitution and the fear of economic repercussions from the ending of slavery ignored the larger problem-a problem that would not be resolved easily. The disagreements about slavery would eventually lead the United States of America to a Civil War.