The Debate over Slavery in the Framing of the US Constitution

Another of the most crucial issues that the Framers had to confront was slavery. Although slavery was practiced throughout the United States, it was concentrated in the South, where approximately one-third of the population consisted of African-American slaves. Nineteen of the fifty-five delegates to the Constitutional convention were slaveowners, and the Southern states were unlikely to agree to any form of government that did not protect the institution of slavery. As a result, one of the great ironies of American history is that slavery became stronger and more entrenched during the era in which Americans fought their revolution and created their new republic.

The Constitution does not mention the word "slavery," but does provide for its existence in three ways: First, the three-fifths clause states that, for purposes of determining how many Representatives each state should receive in the House of Representatives, slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person (so, every five slaves would add three people to a state's population.) Supporters of slavery wanted the slaves to be counted so that Southern states would receive more Representatives, but they did not want the slaves to be counted as a full person, because that might suggest that slaves were equal to free white people. Second, the Constitution prohibits Congress from outlawing the importation of slaves (again without actually using the word "slaves") into the U.S. until 1808, which protected the slave trade for roughly twenty years. Third, the Constitution declared that any slaves who escaped were still the property of their masters, and could be captured and returned to their master.