Slavery In The Constitution Essay

The Constitution was known as the supreme law of the land, a legal document that establishes the laws of the government. In the constitution it states that all men are created equal; however, slavery was an opposing ideal to it. Slavery in the United States was a forbidding reality. Slavery was not mentioned in the constitution because of these three factors: the Three-fifths Clause, the Slave Trade Clause, and the Fugitive Slave Clause.
The Three-fifths Clause is often misunderstood in the Constitution. The clause does not fully deny that blacks are people and not property. In fact, free blacks were counted just as whites were for purposes of apportionment. This clause addresses whether and how slaves should be counted for the purpose of

When congress met at the second Constitutional Convention they focused on whether or not Congress would have enough power to ban or manage the slave trade. The first draft prohibited Congress from taxing exports, outlawing or taxing the slave trade, and passing navigational laws without a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress permanently. South Carolina and Georgia refused to support the Constitution without protection for slavery. The Committee of Eleven recognized a congressional power over the slave trade but recommended that this power be restricted for 12 years and recommended a tax on slave importation. Southern delegates agreed to these recommendations, with the exception that Congress’s power over the slave trade be restricted for twenty years. After the twenty years a preliminary version of the Slave Trade Clause temporarily limited Congress’s commerce power. The final clause was not a permanent section of the constitutional structure because protecting the slave trade was a major franchise the was demanded by delegates who were for slavery. It was a temporary restriction of power that applied only to states existing at the