Argumentative Essay: The Pro Slavery Constitution

The Pro Slavery Constitution

When the constitution was being written, the framers had a plan in mind. Some of the many delegates from the 13 states wanted slavery to end, but most people at the time, wanted slavery to continue. At the time of the constitutional convention, where the constitution was being written, the delegates had a huge task to solve. Do we keep slavery, even though we count them as ⅗ of “people”? After reviewing this question, and the actual constitution, I have decided that the constitution was pro slavery.

Many people had slaves at the time, and wealthy people had hundreds of slaves working at plantations. People in the late 1700’s didn't know how they could manage all their farming and the production of goods. They needed

a cheap source of labor. It was just a one time payment so you always got your money’s worth. When the delegates had to decide whether or not to keep slavery, they had good intentions, but the written constitution leans toward pro slavery.
A great point to bring up when reviewing the Constitution is that there is no written text for supporting slavery.

In the whole constitution, not a single word says that slavery is good, and is needed for society. Some argue that this point is made because the northern free state delegates wanted to ban slavery, but the southern slave states wanted slavery, or they were out. The idea was that the northern free states would hint that they didn't want slavery, because they still didn’t want slavery.

The southern slave states wanted to keep slavery, or they wouldn’t sign the document. That made a big problem going around, that needed to be solved. The Constitution needed to be agreed upon by 9 out of 13 of the states. If the southern states didn’t oblige to the Constitution, then it would not be ratified. The free states did have a way in mind to get the slave states to oblige to the Constitution. It was not easy, but the free states managed to barely pull it

off.
After reviewing the constitution, there are three passages that stand out in the Constitution, and I would like to address them. The first piece of text is in Article 1, Section 2. The section talks about the ⅗ Compromise. If you analyze the quote, “...which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons...three fifths of all other Persons,” you can determine it’s talking about how slaves count as ⅗ of a person. It's mainly talking about how if slaves count as ⅗ of a person, they will count for representation in the House of Representatives.
This quote is obviously pro slavery. This was a big thing for southern states, because almost half of many of the southern state's population were slaves. The south needed more representation, or they will most likely be unnoticed. They knew that if they didn't agree to sign the Constitution, the north would give them benefits. They also wanted to keep slaves for labor. This plan worked. More representatives gave the south more chances to get their needs fulfilled. This quote doesn't at all benefit free states, it just gives them the benefit that slaves don't fully count as a person for representation. The free states wanted to end slavery, so they were also in a conflict of counting slaves even as ⅗ of a person, knowing that they should be a whole person. The problem was that it would give slave states more representatives.
The second passage that I analyzed was Article 1, Section 9, and the section talks about the 20 year “wall”, that protects congress from touching the topic of slavery. The Constitution has it written as, “The Migration or importation of such Person as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax…” This quote is actually really easy to understand. All it says is that any slave that exists, or will exist, in any of the 13 states, will not be tampered with by Congress. In return, the slave owners have to pay a tax for the slaves. This passage is blatantly obvious pro slavery quote. It does make the slave owners do more taxes, but they don’t have to worry about their slaves getting taken away, or payed.
The last passage of the Constitution that I reviewed was in Article 4, Section 2.

The basis of the section is to get the message across of the Fugitive Slave Clause, which was a law that made it so any slave that escaped his owner, and found in another state, would not be free, but returned to his/her “rightful” owner. A quote in the section states, “No Person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence...be discharged from such Service or labor, But shall be delivered up on the Claim of the Party…” This quote is also easy to analyze. It just states what I said before. A slave that has escaped and is found somewhere else, will be returned to their owner. They won’t be disbanded from labor, but be but into worse jobs. It was a risk many slaves were willing to take, just to get to freedom. This is only a win for the slave states because nothing bad happens, only good. They have the chance to keep a slave for a very long

time.
After reading and analyzing those three passages many times, I have come to agree that the Constitution was pro slavery. None of the passages were all anti slavery. There was a bit of anti slavery in the taxes, but that’s all. The Constitution were Framed by many of the smartest people in the 13 states. The delegates of the constitutional convention shared many opinions on matters, but were divided between slavery. Even though the free states wanted the Constitution to be a slavery free document, they didn’t have the choice, mainly because of the southern states. Not all of the delegates could agree, but the twenty years passed and a few decades more, the free states won, and slavery was abolished. This made all three of the sections I reviewed get taken out of the constitution, so none of these laws are put into effect anymore.