The role of slavery in the Constitutional Convention
Bashir Safi
Prof. Jason Ross, Liberty University
PLCY 702-B01
September 18, 2021
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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................3
Historic context................................................................................................................................3
Anti-Slavery Arguments at the Convention.....................................................................................5
Madison, Lincoln, and Douglass on the slavery..............................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography:...................................................................................................................................9
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The role of slavery in the Constitutional Convention
Abstract
The U.S. constitution was written at a convention that was held in Philadelphia between
25 May to September 17, 1787. During this time, slavery was legal and a growing economic
institution in eight states, while Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania passed some
gradual abolition acts and two states New Hampshire and Massachusetts have completely banned
the slavery. This paper analyzes the issue of slavery at the 1787 Convention and what pro-slavery
and anti-slavery debates were exchanged during the Convention. This essay also examines
whether pro-slavery or anti-slavery provisions were established in the Constitution.
Historic context
Liberty and equality were America’s founding principle. The declaration of independence
proclaimed that “all men are created equal” and the constitution secured the promise of liberty
for all. Despite these lofty promises, delegates at the Constitutional Convention included five
clauses in the constitution that promoted slavery (Finkelman 2001, 2-9); (1) the seats in the
House of Representatives were apportioned on the bases of free papulation and 3/5th of slaves.
(2) Congress will not prohibit the import of slaves until 1808 based on Article 1, Section 9. (3)
Taxes should not be exceeded more than ten dollars for a slave. (4) escaped slaves must be
returned to their masters without emancipation, and (5) congress could not amend the slaves
trade clauses until 1808. James Madison called this classes a “dishonorable to the National
character” 1. There were two more anti-slavery clauses in the constitution. According to Article
I, Section 8, and Article IV, Section 4 the U.S. government would suppress slave rebellion. The
1 RFC August 25, II, 415
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constitution also empowered national government to regulate and govern national capital and
territories that would hold slaves until it ended in 1862.
The word slavery was not mentioned in the Constitution that originally written in
Philadelphia in 1787. During the Convention, the delegates talked about slavery very frankly and
clearly, however, the final Constitution document did not use the term slavery. It was the
Thirteenth Amendment that mentions the term slavery, ratified in 1865 after the civil war, which
constitutionally abolished the slavery across the United Sates (Finkelman 2017).
Even without mentioning the word “slavery” in the constitution document, slavery can be
found in number of places connected to the Constitution. The delegates would use terms such as
“other persons”, “person owning labor service” and such persons” (Finkelman 2017). White
people were named as free persons and slaves were documented three-fifth of a free person.
The issues of slavery were discussed from the very first day of the constitution until the
very end of the Convention, but this topic affected the discussion between the northern and
southern delegates (Finkelman 2001). The northern delegates did not allow the word slavery in
the constitution. They feared that use of the word slavery will make ratification more difficult in
their states. The slavery issue was threatening the Convention’s negotiation between the northern
and Southern delegates (Robertson 2013).
For southern delegates, slavery was considered an essential for their region and they
ardently defended it, while it was morally indefensible to the northern delegates. To avoid this
conflict, both sides had to compromised in a series of political decisions in the favor of southern
states. Political compromise allowed that southern states to count a slave as three-fifth of a white
person to determine seats in the House of Representatives that would leave slave-owning whites
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with a disproportionate influence in the national policy-making institution, the House of
Representatives (Robertson 2013).
The idea of three-fifth equitable ratio of representation was first established in the
Confederation Congress four years earlier from the Constitutional Convention (Davis 1977, 49).
Pierce Butler and John Rutledge could not convince the delegates to use wealth instead of
population for proportional representation.2 It was James Wilson and Charles Pinckney who
rejected Butler and Rutledge proposal of wealth-based representation and instead inserted that
representation should be based on free inhabitants plus three-fifths of its slaves. 3
There were other compromises favoring slave states including the import of slaves until
1808 with no taxes, and salve owner can recover their escaped slaves. Slavery was a peculiar
social relationship and an economic interest of the southern states. This political compromise left
the American people with inequality and tragic consequences for generations.
Anti-Slavery Arguments at the Convention
A total of eighty delegates were attending the Constitutional Convention of which 25
delegates owned slaves. Many of them had doubts on the morality of slavery. Charles Pinckney,
delegate from South Carolina proposed a notion that annual census should count slave equal with
free white. This notion was rejected by southern pro-slave delegates. Gouverneur Morris argued
that he never would concur in upholding domestic slavery, but he is open to consider salves as
wealth. But if we consider slaves as wealth, “then why is no other wealth included?”. 4 Including
wealth as population was not practical and even harder if salves were to be accounted as
2 The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. New Haven: Yale University Press, 193
3 RFC June 11, I, 201
4 RFC July 11, I, 582
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property. According to James Madison’s notes Gouverneur Morris spoke loudly against slavery
at the Convention. Morris called the slavery “a nefarious institution” (Phillips 1969).
Morris argued that if slaves to be considered as wealth, his house in Philadelphia worth
more than all the wretched slaves of South Carolina. On the Three-Fifth compromise, he added
what principle allow us to compute slaves in representation. When we consider them men, and
when we make them citizens and let them vote. If they are property, why not other properties
included in the representation (Adams 2003).
In 1787 Constitutional Convention, James Madison argued that trading slaves was
dishonorable to the National character”. He further reasoned that slaves must not be taxed
because it is wrong to have a constitution where men considered as property. He also argued that
slaves are not like consumable merchandise and could not be held as property. Madison was the
loudest anti-slavery voice during 1780s revolutionary politics, but he did not have a true impact
on the policy space to follow through his revolutionary views about slavery (Signer 2015, 205).
Madison, just like Morris agrees that without political compromise at the Constitutional
Convention they would not have a strong national government.
Madison, Lincoln, and Douglass on the slavery
On the slavery James Madison said in his notes, “where slavery exists, the Republican
Theory becomes still more fallacious.”5 He also expressed that slavery founded improper
principles of the confederation. Madison believed that “Slavery destroyed the foundation of
government and formed the line of discrimination for the generations to come. Mr. Madison also
stated that equality should not be substitute for proportional representation6. Years later,
5 The Writings of James Madison, Gaillard Hunt (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900). Vol. 3.
6 Ibid
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Abraham Lincoln said the slavery is “a moral, social and political evil”7 but he acknowledged
that slavery is an “actual existence amongst us and the difficulties of getting rid of it in any
satisfactory way, and to all the Constitutional obligations which have been thrown about it”
(Rietveld 1975, 27).
Lincoln observed that our founding fathers did not create the slavery, but it was existing
here. The framers could not end the slavery, because there was no way to get rid of it. According
to Abraham Lincoln the founding fathers did not want to create this nation half free and half
slave, but it was in a result of political compromise. 8
James Madison could not agree with the three-fifth based proportional representation.
While speaking to the Convention, Madison said that “the people at large” were “the fittest” to
choose the president. But “one difficulty … of a serious nature” made election by the people
impossible. Madison said slaves would not help elect presidents.
On the other hand, Madison public view on the slavery was contradicting of his private
life. From his relationship with Sawney and emancipation of Bliley, he also did not follow his
own revolutionary principles on the slavery. There were inconsistencies in his views and
practical treatment of slavery. According to Signer, Madison applied a different political
philosophy concerning this issue, on national level he believed slavery was an existential threat
to the country, but at his private life and during his retirement he though he treated slaves very
well, he saw no conflict in both standards (Signer 2015, 205). Other historian, such as Jack
Rakove argued that Madison’s reluctance to challenge slavery at the convention publicly was not
justified but it was a concession to the political reality (Rakove 2002, 3).
7 A debate by Abraham Lincoln at U.S. National Park Service, Lincoln home. Illinois. October 7, 1858.
8 A debate by Abraham Lincoln at U.S. National Park Service, Lincoln home. Illinois. October 7, 1858.
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Fredrick Douglass, a prominent activist, and abolitionist leader was a former escaped
slave said he was really impressed that other nations treated slaves and people of color better
than he had experienced in America. In his book he stated that “slavery is the enemy of both the
slave and the slaveholder.” He said once an Irishman advised him to escape to the north and find
new friends and be free. Douglass thought the person was a treacherous because white men
would encourage slaves to flee, so then can recapture them back and get a reward from their
masters. According to Douglass he was very young that time and since then started thinking to
escape. To saves there were too little to choose between liberty and slavery (Douglass 2014, 76).
Conclusion
To summarize the essay, I explained arguments from both sides of the Constitutional
Convention. Some of the delegates loudly voiced against slavery, while other delegates were pro-
slavery. The political compromise strengthened the union and formed a strong national
government, but it allowed pro-slavery clauses in the Constitution which according to James
Madison was a dishonor to the national character. Advocating against slavery was very difficult
at the time when Constitutional Convention was convened. Even for James Madison, he owned
slaves until his death, but he spoke against slavery during his revolutionary addresses. Slavery
was a political reality at the time. At the Constitutional Convention 25 delegates out of 55 owned
slaves. Morris and Madison were among loud voices against slavery at the Convention, but they
could not get rid of it, and compromised a Three-Fifth proportion to keep the Union intact and a
stronger national government. Finally, the Constitution did not use the term “slavery” and instead
delegates used other words such as persons, other persons, free white at the Convention but there
were at least five clauses to be anti-slavery, and another clause that limits Congress from
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amending slavery clauses until 1808. Furthermore, a clause was written which empowered the
federal government to suppress any slave rebellion.
From the notes that was taken by James Madison at the Constitutional Convention we
understand that the Constitution document had infamous slavery clauses but founding fathers
who voiced against slavery found no other choice but to form a strong national government and a
union at the expenses of such political compromise.
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Bibliography:
Adams, Howard, Gouverneur Morris: An Independent Life (2003)
Davis, Joseph L., Sectionalism in American Politics, 1774–1787 (Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1977)
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave.
Minneapolis, MN: First Avenue Editions, 2014.
Finkelman, Paul. "Slavery Clauses in the U.S. Constitution 1787." In Milestone Documents in
African American History, edited by Grey House Publishing. 2nd ed. Salem Press, 2017.
Finkelman, Paul. Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson, 2nd ed.
(Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2001).
Madison, James. The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787. Constitution Society
Madison, James; Hunt, Gaillard, ed.; Scott, James Brown, joint ed. “Debates in the Federal
Convention of 1787” Oxford University Press, 1920.
Max Ferrand. The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1937.
Phillips, Wendell, and James Madison. The Constitution a Pro-Slavery Compact: Selections from
the Madison Papers, &c. Vol. no. 11; no. 11.;. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.
Rakove, Jack N., James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic, Second Edition
(New York: Longman, 2002), 3.
Rietveld, Ronald D. “Lincoln and the Politics of Morality.” Journal of the Illinois State
Historical Society (1908-1984) 68, no. 1 (1975): 27–44.
Robertson, David Brian. The Original Compromise: What the Constitution's Framers were really
Thinking. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Signer, Michael. Becoming Madison (New York, NY: Public Affairs, 2015
