Was slavery illegal according to the U.S Constitution?

Answer 1

Historians sometimes call this "The Great Silence." The US Constitution did not outlaw slavery. "Slavery" is not even mentioned in the US Constitution. The subject was so divisive between the southern and the northern states that any further debate on it had to be dropped for 20 years and left for another generation to figure out or the Constitution would never have been adopted. In the Constitution, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 states that the migration and 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 1808. Clause 4 permits a tax on the importation of such persons but limits it to $10 a person. Further, Article 5 allowed amendments to the Constitution, but specifically prohibited any amendment that would affect the first and fourth clauses of the ninth section of the first article before 1808. Note how carefully the words slave or slavery were kept out. Since slavery was in effect then, the Constitution did not abolish it. The southern states were afraid that as soon as the Constitution was adopted, that the abolitionists would immediately try to abolish slavery by an amendment and the whole fight would start all over again. This is why the 20 year waiting period was adopted. As an aside, the southern states were correct in their feelings because the very next year several abolitionist Quakers went to Congress to propose abolition of slavery. They argued that the Constitution forbids actual abolition but not debate on the issue. Southern states were outraged, claiming essentially that there was a gentlemen's agreement that this issue would not be talked about again until 1808 in return for southern states accepting the Constitution. This attempt failed to bring about abolition.

ANSWER: The Constitution did not outlaw slavery until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment and in Article I Section 2 you can find where the Constitution tacitly upheld slavery, shamefully undermined the very principle of which the Constitution was inspired and forever left a stain on that document of freedom. The clause is the "three-fifths" compromise where "all other persons" are delegated to being "three-fifths" of a person. The compromise, historians sometimes call, "The Great Compromise" created the bicameral legislative body that is Congress. The "three-fifths" compromise was created to assuage the slave states in terms of apportionment in choosing, or as our forefathers would put it, chusing Representatives. By granting slave states the ability to count their slaves as three-fifths of all other persons this gave them a larger body count when chusing Representatives, which gave them better Representation in Congress and this is why it took so long to correct the error.

Creating a bicameral legislative body was indeed a great accomplishment, the compromise that followed was far from great, as compromises rarely are. The debate was so divisive that dropping it was not the issue, postponing the inevitability of war in order to correct the error is what kept certain people "silent". Eventually there was war and then Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment. The carnage that followed and the blood that flowed did little to wash away the original stain and only served to create confusing and dubious legislation such as the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The Fourteenth Amendment arrogantly claims to grant rights to those "other people" who all ready had rights. Who had rights when they were captured as slaves, had rights when they were treated as chattel and had rights when the Thirteenth Amendment finally corrected the problem. By abolishing slavery there was no need for a Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment as the whole "three-fifths" fiasco had been rendered moot.

Answer 2

No, the original Constitution did not outlaw slavery; it did not address it. Many delegates wanted to outlaw the practice of slavery. In fact, the vote to outlaw slavery failed by one vote. The country would later go to war to abolish slavery. A civil war that would find its own citizens killing each other to set a minority of its population free. The only country in history to do so, at the cost of nearly a million lives of its citizens. The Constitution was changed in 1865 - 66 with the addition of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, that were specifically passed to address the freed slaves. They outlawed slavery, granted slaves under the jurisdiction of the United States citizenship, and gave those slaves the right to vote. 100% of the Republicans voted to outlaw slavery (13th Amendment), 23% of the Democrats agreed. The 14th Amendment, Republicans 94% in favor, 0% Democrats. The 15th Amendment, Republicans 80% in favor, 63% of Democrats.

Answer 3

Thew Thirteenth Ammendment, Was ratified Decemberr 6, 1865

The text of the amendment is as follows;

Section 1: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duky convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2: Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Answer 4

No slavery was not stated in the Constitution of the United States.

Answer 5

Yes and no.

The original Constitution didn't expressly forbid it, but it was abolished by the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Answer 6

The Constitution did not outlaw slavery. But the Constitution counted blacks as 3/5 of a man for purposes of census.

Answer 7

No, and when you add Dred Scott it made it legally part of the law.

Answer 8

Not specifically.