William Garisson's Impact On The American Slave Industry

At first Douglass was influenced by William Garisson who like many other abolitionist, considered the structure and content of the Constitution as working against easing the way for emancipation. A the time Garrison and Douglass argued that the Constitution is inherently proslavery.The two men felt that the Amendments that address the Three Fifths Compromise, the Slave Trade, the Fugitive Slave act, and the power of Congress greatly impacted the American Slave industry and its continuation. Douglass and Garrison argued that the three fifths compromise unfairly favored slaveholding states. The clause stated that three-fifths of “all other persons” (slaves) will be counted for both taxation and representation. Although slaves could not vote, they were used to help increase Southern representation in the House, giving the South a

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.This Amendment made it so that Slaves had no severity. Each of these Amendments, Douglass and Garrison felt, provided incentive for slavery and a platform for the continuation of slavery. In that the Constitution was inherently pro-slavery. Although, as Douglass spent more time stuffing the Constitution his ideas began to