What does the Constitution say about slavery?
Question: What does the Constitution say about slavery?
Answer:
The United States Constitution, as originally ratified in 1788, did not explicitly use the word “slavery.” However, it contained several provisions that directly or indirectly protected the institution of slavery. The most notable of these was Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, known as the Three-Fifths Compromise. This clause stated that for the purposes of representation and taxation, enslaved individuals would be counted as three-fifths of a person.
Other sections of the Constitution also addressed slavery without naming it directly. Article I, Section 9, Clause 1 prohibited Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808.
Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3, known as the Fugitive Slave Clause, required that escaped slaves be returned to their owners even if they fled to free states. These provisions effectively enshrined slavery in the nation’s founding document and provided constitutional protections for slaveholders.
It wasn’t until after the Civil War that the Constitution was amended to explicitly address and abolish slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in 1865, states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
This amendment finally eliminated the constitutional protections for slavery and prohibited the practice throughout the United States.
