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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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Answer: The founding Fathers decided to avoid the topic of slavery in the constitution (besides the abolishment of it later on) because at the time the topic was very delicate and discussing it was prone to major disagreements and conflict between the Founding Fathers. At the time, the northern and southern states were definitely not on the same page about slavery. The north was all for doing away with slavery while the south was just the

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The United States Constitution was Americas first governing document which would guarantee the citizens freedom and equality; however, would also promote and protect slavery. After the constitution was written, the African slave trade would be protected up until 1808. Northern states were outlawing slavery, while southern states were trying to preserve slavery. Slavery was a way for southern states to gain addition representation within congress.

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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

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The Constitution was created “to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty,” and from this Douglass concluded that it “could not well have been designed at the same time to maintain and perpetuate a system of rapine and murder like slavery.” Slavery goes against all of the principles promised by the preamble of the Constitution, and therefore can be used as a means to abolish slavery since it goes against the country’s principle

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3. The word slave or slavery were never mentioned in the US constitution. However, there were some implications in a few parts regarding the matter of slavery. Therefore, even though the constitution didn’t mention slavery, the document still supported the institution of slavery in several parts including the three-fifths compromise, the slave trade, and the fugitive-slave law. Starting with the three-fifths compromise, the document from appendix B section 2 states that, “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for

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After the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the thirteen Colonies finally gained its freedom from Great Britain, Even though the thirteen States were independent they did not know what would be the specific prohibition on the government power. The Continental Congress adopted the Article of Confederation in which listed specific function to the National government. The Articles of confederation was a total disaster, because the Federal government was too weak to enforce any of the its laws. The thirteen States now decided that they needed a stronger central government and created the U.S Constitution, It was signed on September 17, 1787. The Constitution created a national government, laws, and guaranteed certain rights for its citizens.

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The pro-slavery argument revolved around the idea of white supremacy. Southern individuals believed that blacks were innately inferior to whites and this made them unsuited for any life other than slavery. Many slaveholders also used biblical justification for the validation of slavery. Passages such as the injunction that servants should obey their masters are an example of this. There were others who argued that slavery was essential to human progress.

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In the South where the forces of slavery were strong, the number of slaves increased and slavery also extended westward. The U.S. constitution became a powerful force in the continued enslavement of African Americans the constitution goals were. One of the Constitution goals was to counteract slave rebellion and escape, so congress formed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. This act allowed slave masters to recapture slaves who escaped to the free states. Another factor that increased slavery in the south was the southern cotton production, which encourages the “domestic slave trade”.

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The first written constitution that the Untied States of America ever had was called the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was made to give the thirteen colonies some sense of unity as an established county. Once the thirteen

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late 1850s, many abolitionists took it a step further, and began to attack not just slavery’s conditions, but also because it enforced dependence upon slaves. Security was the most important consideration of slave ownership because slaves represented something that was highly valuable but still a risky asset. American abolitionists also began to look at the U.S. Constitution. They agreed that the framers contended with the snake of slavery that was coiled under the table at the constitution convention by writing into the United States Constitution implicit protection of the peculiar institution (Knowles, 2007). Some abolitionists were concerned about whether or not the Constitution was a pro slavery document.

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It all began when slavery was adoptef in ancient History. Majority of the people have no positive connection with the word ‘slavery’. From as far back as history can recall, slavery was commonly performed. Ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, the Vikings, the Ottoman Empire and the famous Atlantic slave trade where African states conquered one another and sold their own people to Europeans. Many of these slaves would find their way into the new world, and slavery continued in America up until the 13th amendment was ratified in the United States.

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