Summarize the three provisions in the Constitution regarding slavery. Why didn’t the founders abolish slavery?

Question

Any ideas?

Answer 1

1. The "three-fifths" compromise. (This was related to determining what each state owed in taxes AND how many representatives it could have in Congress, and electoral votes for President. Note that the SOUTH wanted a FULL count of slaves, willing to pay more taxes to gain more REPRESENTATIVES.)

Text: "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 2)

(Art,1, Sec. 9 includes the tax provision -- "No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.")

2. Allowing end of slave trade. Compromise = setting a date before which Congress could not prohibit the trade, viz. 1808.)

Text: "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"
(Art. I, Sec. 9)

3.The South also asked for, and received, assurances that it would be supported in efforts to retrieve fugitive slaves. This provision actually originated in the Northwest Ordinances -- a provision the North had made to gain Southern support in assuring that the Northwest Territory would remain free. (This became an increasing sore point, as Northern states in the years before the Civil War not only refused to actively assist, but passed "personal liberty laws". This protected free blacks from being kidnapped by bount hunters, but also made it extremely difficult for a Southern slave owner to recover a slave.)

Text: "No person held to service or labor 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 labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."
(Art. IV, Sec. 2)

Text of Constitution:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=105_cong_documents&docid=f:sd011.105

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As for not ending slavery -- note that these were originally SEPARATE STATES who wrote their OWN laws about these things. And many of them (in the North) DID, by the time of the Constitution, pass laws to eliminate slavery in their own states.

There was, as many have noted, strong opposition in the Deep South (Georgia and esp. South Carolina) to national bans on slavery. Indeed, this group had forced the Continental Congress to cut Jefferson's scathing attack on slavery (blaming the British monarchs for bringing it here) from the Declaration, else they would not support it.

There was also a HOPE that slavery would gradually die out in the South --since at that time MANY, in the South as well as the North, regarded it as an evil to be gotten rid of. . . even it they could not figure out HOW to do it just yet.

Also, the willingness to accept an 1808 moratorium on the slave trade, as well as the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (banning slavery in states made from that territory), were thought by many to be a beginning of that gradual process. (Indeed, this was something of the view of the Republican Party in the 1850s -- if the EXTENSION of slavery could be prevented, it would die out.)

Answer 2

You can summarize the provisions by looking in any textbook. The founders didn't abolish slavery for three simple reasons:

PROFITS: Too much money was being made through slavery and the slave trade--the young country could not afford to lose that money.

PRIORITIES: The founders were more intent upon creating a workable union than dealing with the question of slavery. They knew that any attempt to end slavery would divide the union right there and then. In essence, they passed the buck. John Adams knew the question was of great importance to the future of the nation, and that it would be answered "only at the cannon's mouth."

PREJUDICE: While many of the founders abhored slavery, it is unlikely that many (if any) of them truly saw Africans as equal to whites.

Answer 3

Summarize The Constitution

Answer 4

I can't think of 3 separate provisions. The one that I know is that a slave was counted as 3/5 of a person for the purposes of determining population and hence representation in the House of Reps. And they did not abolish slavery because they needed unity to fight the British.

Answer 5

I'm not going to summarize the provisions for you - that's relatively easy and you should do it yourself so you better understand them - for your exam.
They couldn't/would't abolish it as, was previously stated, our economy would have gone in the crapper had they done so. We were too dependent on slave labor at the time.

Answer 6

slavery was one of the main reasons behind the revolution,all the rich people knew that it was only a matter of time before britain abolished it,as it had been before parliament on several occasions and was narrowly defeated,and so the greedy rich stirred up the people to start their traitorous revolution,

Answer 7

The "Founders" didn't abolish slavery because they were very immoral people.

They were too lazy to do the hardest work themselves. That's why people have slaves in the first place.

Answer 8

why would they cripple the economy of a newly emerging nation?