Lesson of the day (grades 9-12)
The Constitution: Slavery and the Constitution
Listen: You can hear the episode here (Apple podcasts) on YouTube, or on our website. Consider taking a stroll while you listen. Do you think the framers made sure to take exercise breaks while they were writing the Constitution? If not, that’s an awfully long time to be cooped up indoors arguing with your colleagues.
Do: The word “slavery” appears only once in our Constitution, and it’s in the amendment that finally abolished the institution — ratified in 1865. Yet slavery was a central and fraught debate point during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The text of the Constitution deals with it directly even if the framers were too queasy about it to use the word itself.
James Madison, himself an enslaver, proposed the three-fifths ratio for population count. While he opposed the idea of slavery, Madison considered it necessary to the southern economy and never freed his enslaved individuals.
There is a debate among lawyers and constitutional scholars as to whether the Constitution was a pro-slavery document. What do you think?
Take a look at these op-eds:
This one by Sean Wilentz for the New York Times argues the Constitution was a pro-slavery document.
The other, by Juan Perea for the American Constitution Society, argues it was not a pro-slavery document.
Now consider these questions:
Was the three-fifths compromise a necessary political choice?
How would the years between the ratification of the Constitution and the Civil War have been different if the following provisions were not built into the Constitution?
Take a minute to look over the slavery provisions below before you consider this last one!
Was the Constitution a pro-slavery document? Yes, no, or do you fall somewhere in the middle?
These were taken from this wonderful deep dive by the National Archives!
Art. I, sec. 2: The Three-fifths clause: The three-fifths clause provided for counting three-fifths of all slaves for purposes of representation in Congress. This clause also provided that any "direct tax" levied on the states could be imposed only proportionately, according to population, and that only three-fifths of all slaves would be counted in assessing each state's contribution.
Art. I, sec. 9: The Slave Trade Ban clause: his clause prohibited Congress from banning the "Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit" before the year 1808. Awkwardly phrased and designed to confuse readers, the clause prevented Congress from ending the African slave trade before 1808 but did not require Congress to ban the trade after that date. The clause was a significant exception to the general power granted to Congress to regulate all foreign and interstate commerce.
Art. I, sec. 9: The Direct Tax clause: This clause declared that any "capitation" or other "direct tax" had to take into account the three-fifths clause. It ensured that, if a head tax were ever levied, slaves would be taxed at three-fifths the rate of whites. The "direct tax" portion of this clause was redundant, because that was provided for in the three-fifths clause.
Art. IV, sec. 2: The Fugitive Slave clause: The fugitive slave clause prohibited the states from emancipating fugitive slaves and required that runaways be returned to their owners "on demand."
Art. V.: The Slave Trade Amendment clause: This article prohibited any amendment of the slave importation or capitation clauses before 1808.