MARCH 4, 1789:
The United States Constitution becomes the effective law of
the land. As first written, the Constitution contains three provisions relating
to slavery:
Article I Section 2 Clause 1: 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 a Term of Years, and
excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
Article I Section 9 Clause 1: The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the
States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the
Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or
duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each
Person.
Article IV Section 2 Clause 3: No Person held to Service or Labour 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.
The
first, the Enumeration Clause, directs that slaves shall be counted as 3/5ths
of a person. This gives the Southern
States an advantage in Congressional representation which remains effective for
decades, and whose decline is one of the unseen sparks of the Civil War. Fully
39% of the population of Virginia is held in slavery at this time.
The
second, the Slave Trade Clause, barred Congress from legislating on the issue
of the slave trade until at least 1808, thus allowing captured Africans to be
brought to this country without limitation for at least that long.
The
third, the Fugitive Slave Clause, though cleverly written to appear like a
neutral law on extradition, demands the return of escaped slaves to their
owners. Thus, slavery (which had never been mentioned, even euphemistically, in
the Articles of Confederation) was written into the organic law of the United
States from the beginning. And
secession, which had been outright banned by the Articles of Confederation And
Perpetual Union in its very name, is never mentioned in the Constitution at
all.
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