Slavery Clauses in the U.S. Constitution

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: In modern discussions it is often stated that the U.S. Constitution regarded slaves as “three-fifths” of a person. In what sense, though, is this misleading? Put differently, why would the northern states that opposed slavery have been more content if slaves had not been counted as persons at all?
• 2.: The U.S. Constitution deferred the issue of abolishing the slave trade (but not slavery) for two decades. What was the outcome of this provision of the Constitution? For help, see “An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade,” by Peter Williams, Jr.
• 3.: What historical factors made slavery an entrenched institution in the American South but less so in the North? Were there any circumstances in which this pattern might have been reversed?
• 4.: The U.S. Constitution was a product of negotiation and compromise in a number of respects—between large states and small states; between agricultural states and those whose economies were based more on trade, manufacture, and finance; and, of course, between slave states and free states. What motivated the Framers of the Constitution to accede to these sorts of compromises?
• 5.: Who were the Federalists and the Antifederalists in the debate over ratification of the U.S. Constitution? What were the positions of these incipient political parties on slavery and the slave trade?