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Slavery In The US Constitution

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Slavery in the U.S. Constitution After the Unites States declared Independence from Great Britain in 1776, they greatly feared a strong national government that would be like a monarchy like the one Great Britain had. To prevent this tyrannical government from happening in the U.S., a convention of delegates from all thirteen states were brought together to create the U.S.’s first written constitution: the Articles of Confederation. This convention was called the Continental Congress. The Articles of Confederation focused on having a federal government, or a loose alliance of the states. The Articles of Confederation had a very weak central government so the rights of the people would be secure. The Articles of Confederation was ratified by …show more content…

This new Constitution called for something in between the last two forms of government they had: they called for a strong central government that would last but wouldn 't endanger the citizen’s freedom or rights. This became known as the U.S. Constitution. In the end of the Constitutional Convention, each delegate left with a copy of the Constitution to convince the states to approve it. It got ratified in 1788. In the U.S. Constitution, there were several clauses that focused on slavery, such as ⅗ Compromise, slave trade clause, and the fugitive slave clause. The Framers of the U.S. Constitution created a pro-slavery …show more content…

Lastly, there was the fugitive slave clause in Article 4 Section 2: “No Person held to Service or Labor in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.” This is saying that if a slave escapes into another state, even a free one, it has to be returned to the person they work for. This is pro-slavery because it’s supporting the slave owners in retrieving their escaped slaves. It is preventing the slaves from becoming free; it is guaranteeing that they stay slaves. 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

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