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Slavery and the Constitution

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Slavery and the Constitution
Alexis Hishaw
11/01/2013
US History 2111
Prof. Geeter

Slavery and the Constitution

During the late 1700s and early 1800s, the country of America was in for a rude awakening. This was a time for war and change. Most of our American pioneers were fighting for two freedoms. Though many of our founding fathers saw nothing wrong with slavery, leaders such as Thomas Jefferson related the incident as immoral. With the Constitution being first drafted, slavery still existed and only a few states had exempt been from it. Nonetheless the Constitution still served and serves today as a document to support the American life.
The drafted version of the Constitution molded how the country should be run by its people. Meanwhile America wanted a solid government African Americans were striving for their own rights. They fought in wars for the incentive of freedom and even then this agreement was not being acknowledged. Many slave owners thought African Americans were too incompetent or were much too similar to savages and there would be no way they could coexist together. The Three-Fifths compromise stated that every slave would be counted for three-fifths of a person for tax purposes. The delegates sought to count a slave as a whole person because it would give slave owners more power in the Electoral College since slave were not permitted to vote.
The Constitution also implies slavery in other areas. In Article 1, Section 9, Congress is not allowed to stop the "Importation" of slaves, before 1808. The slave trade was thought to help the economy and thus without it, plantations owners would be at risk of losing their property.
The draft of the Constitution was definitely faulty and it did not work in the favor of African Americans but it did open the door to many rights we have and know today.
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