The issue of slavery was a significant “thorn in the side” of America from the very inception of our nation. Despite the fact that slavery was an accepted legal phenomenon in the eighteenth century, it also invoked significant controversy. Many Americans, typically those denizens of the southern states, felt that slavery was an indispensable economic necessity. Alternatively, others opined that slavery was an inherently immoral and unethical institution which denied certain races basic human rights, and as such warranted abolition, no matter the consequences. Although the Constitution never mentions the word “slave” once, slavery is referenced to in the Constitution several times, in three prominent compromises that our founding fathers were forced to make, for the sake of the establishment of a unified nation. These compromises had a lasting impact on future generations, both legally and emotionally.
When the colonists decided it was
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As a result, a compromise was agreed upon. Three fifths, or sixty percent, of a state's slave population would be represented in Congress. This came to be known as the “Three-Fifths Compromise”.
A second issue raised during the writing of the Constitution, was whether the government should given the power to regulate slave trade. Many delegates from the Northern states considered slavery evil and denounced it as a repugnant institution. The South on the other hand, argued that slavery was an economic reality and necessity. As Charles Cotesworth Pinckney so aptly put it,
“While there remained one acre of swamp-land uncleared of South Carolina, I would raise my voice against restricting the importation of negroes. I am . . . thoroughly convinced . . . that the nature of our climate, and the flat, swampy situation of our country, obliges us to cultivate our lands with negroes, and that without them South Carolina would soon be a desert