The United States Constitution of 1787 was created in order to build a strong infrastructure for our country to pave a pathway for the future people in charge of the law. The topic in which the constitution was pro slavery or anti slavery was highly controversial for a number of reasons. This topic put the government into many debates though its constitutional convention as the word slavery itself was never said in the actual document. Even Though it was not said, it was clear that the ones in power were biased toward the slave owners in the country based on the provisions that were made. It may be debated as something in between as nothing was explicitly stated, but the three-fifths compromise stating that enslaved persons were not three fifths …show more content…
The Liberator, was an anti slavery newspaper that Garrison has his publication with where he talked about his views on the constitution and how he thought it separated the union. He aggressively criticized the constitution because of its allowing of this compromise and argued that its morals went against human rights. He sought the compromise to be unjustifiable as it was a way of seeing enslaved humans as property instead of human beings. Garrison and Douglass fought to see humans being equal in the acts of voting and to abolish this compromise as it was not something to fix political unfairness. More on the evidence that the constitution was said to be a pro-slavery document was the twenty year compromise. This compromise allowed for the unjust international slave trade to continue until the year 1808. This was to ban the government from regulating the importation of slaves so the southern states could stop the spread of slavery and keep it inside their territory. It also allowed for the state of Maine to join the Union as a so-called slave state; they did this to maintain a balance between the slave owner states and the free states of the United …show more content…
Again, Publius was the one who argued against this clause in hopes of keeping away friction between the slave owner slates and the free states. On top of his thoughts, the other two abolitionists I previously spoke about Douglass and Garrison, also criticized the clause. They showed that the Fugitive slave clause had a direct correction to violating human rights. ˇThis Clause would make it almost impossible for any sort of enslaved person to have any sort of freedom in there life. Garrison also argued about what this did for the citizens as a whole. This sort of act would make the slaveholder and free state individuals complicit, being that they had to act if they saw a runaway slave. Treating members of society like they aren’t human, and telling the other members to do the same
The ratification of the Constitution in 1788 was a controversial dispute among Federalists and Anti-Federalists for several years. Due to the document’s failure to incorporate sufficient liberties both for suppressed blacks and white statesmen, the United States Constitution had many critics. The white majority feared the scope of the federal government’s power while the black minority had their own suspicions. Arguments regarding the rights of African American colonists exploded with the passing of the Constitution. Worries stirred concerning the Constitution’s listed rights that geared more towards whites and the permission of slavery.
James Madison was referring to slavery in this claim - “ In the third place, it was inconsistent with the principles of the Revolution, and dishonorable to the American character, to have such a feature in the Constitution.” “Five slaves are to be counted as three freemen.” This is alluding to the fact that the framers of the Constitution did not see slaves as equivalent citizens, but as unequal, unworthy people. Typically the Northern states did not support slavery, which was a large part of the population, therefore, by including slavery it did not represent many states ethical beliefs. Targeting of any group of people is simply unethical and destroys the democratic principles the United States was founded upon.
When talking about the constitution in today’s world I don’t think anyone would disagree about the constitution being an anti-slavery document. The 13th amendment abolishes slavery and any form of service that isn’t voluntary. But at the time of the writing of the constitution I think there would be a strong argument for why the constitution was a pro-slavery document. The north and the south had different views on slavery, but they also agreed on some things. When talking about the slaves they had a big role in the constitution.
Garrison was unyielding and steadfast in his beliefs. He believed that the the Anti-Slavery Society should not align itself with any political party. He believed that women should be allowed to participate in the Anti-Slavery Society. He believed that the U.S. Constitution was a pro-slavery document. Garrison thought that revolting would be disastrous.
Chapter:2 The United States Constitution pages 87-107 Preamble: 1. Form a More Perfect Union, Establish Justice,Insure Domestic Tranquility, Provide for the Common Defense, Promote the General Welfare, Secure the Blessings of Liberty. 2. "We the people of the united states" it means that the only reason that their is a government is because of the people, and should be made to serve the people. Article:1 Legislative Branch 1.
It was the summer of 1858 when a series of seven debates between two senatorial candidates in Illinois began on the issue of slavery and the potential for its expansion into new territories. The two candidates, Abraham Lincoln, and Stephan A. Douglas, continuously battled until October of 1858 when the last debate was held in Alton, Illinois. A month later, Lincoln, among other Republican candidates won the popular election by 52% but the democratic-leaning state legislature chose to have Douglas return to the senate instead. These debates heavily influenced the 1858 congressional election. The seven debates between Lincoln and Douglas were heavily complex but one theme remained throughout- was slavery constitutional?
Douglass goes on to explain Garrison’s position and how he initially fell for it. Garrison’s teachings declared the “pro-slavery character of the Constitution” and he advocated for the “non-voting principle” as a means to promote “no union with slaveholders.” For Garrison, the only way to deal with sin is to cut it off completely. Voting and holding office simply made a person complacent in a corrupt system, since it was built upon by the Construction, a pro-slavery doctrine. Garrison refused to work with evil to get rid of evil—meaning, he refused to work with the Constitution to get rid of slavery.
Furthermore, the Amendment appointed a required minimum time for the Slave Trade to take place. Douglass and Garrison also felt that the Fugitive Slave Act presented a legal means of enforcement of Slave owners on their subjects. This Amendment provided a means to for slaveowners to reclaim escaped slaves and It also established a penalty for obstructing a slave owners efforts to retake a slave. To Douglass this Amendment enforced the idea that slaves are property not people. Lastly, Amendment I section VIII, “requires the President to use the military, navel, and militias resources of the entire country for the suppression of the slave insurrection” and keep slaves from uniting.
A slave is made a slave because its mother is one. Under the constitution, this type of law is illegal. If the people were to follow this law, slave laws would be repealed. Frederick Douglass believed that the constitution is a body of paper with words that cannot be changed. Simply put, people have begun to interpret their own meaning of the constitution when the Founding Fathers have specifically written down how it should be
The three-fifths clause was the most important constitutional compromise because it granted the Southern states more political authority, which the Southerners then used to maintain slavery as an institution in the upcoming decades. The three-fifths clause made it so that three-fifths of a state’s slave population would be used in order to decide how many electoral votes and how many representatives a state could have. It was a compromise between the South (which relied on slaves for its economy) and the North (which had fewer slaves) for the sake of political unity. This clause guaranteed Southern states more political power than Northern States through votes or representation, so that laws would pass that allowed slavery to continue and flourish.
However he clearly describes how these motivations led to the document we have today. Lynd states that the argument over slavery divided the government, as well as the thirteen colonies, into north and south. This sectionalism led to many of the compromises in the constitution today. With the South wanting to keep slavery, and the North wanting to abolish it, the tension between the two sides was very high. Lynch, a southerner, stated “ if it is debated, whether their Slaves are their Property, there is an end of the Confederation”, this ultimatum provides the reasoning behind the fact that slavery is not mentioned in the constitution.
Ultimately, the U.S. Constitution was pro-slavery because there wasn 't anything in it that was overly anti-slavery; slavery was being supported. I think that it makes sense to have the Constitution be pro-slavery because the country was left in a chaotic state after the Articles of Confederation failed and it needed to become united fast. To quickly unite the country, the Constitution needed everyone’s support and help, which couldn 't have been received without slavery. The large slave states wouldn 't have ratified the Constitution if slavery was going to be abolished
Following the Revolutionary War, America had just gained independance from Great Britain and needed to form a new government. The Articles of Confederation were established as an attempt to create a government that was unlike Britain’s. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. When in the process of repairing those weaknesses, the Federalists and the Anti-federalists formed. The Articles of Confederation were very weak as well as useless to America and because of this, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists could not agree on a new type of government.
DBQ Essay The United States Constitution is a document that or founding fathers made in order to replace the failing Articles of Confederation (A of C). Under the Constitution, the current government and states don’t have the problems they faced when the A of C was in action. The Constitution was created in 1788, and held an idea that the whole nation was nervous about. This idea was a strong national government, and the Federalist assured the people that this new government would work. The framers of the Constitution decided to give more power to the Federal government rather than the state governments because the A of C had many problems, there was a need for the layout of new government, rights, and laws, and there was a need for the Federal
Therefore, freeing the slaves was not important. All men aren’t created equally as shown in these times. The belief that slavery was wrong, was not strong enough for the the Constitution to overcome. Mr. Freehling said, “The only way Africans could be free was if they were sent back to Africa”.