1787; Constitution effective 1789
U.S. Constitution protects slaveholding interests
United States; enslaved people
The 1787 Constitution counted three-fifths of enslaved people for House representation and direct taxation, increasing slaveholding states’ House seats and electoral votes relative to counting only free people. It barred Congress from prohibiting slave importation into existing states before 1808 and required the return, on a claimant’s demand, of people escaping service or labor legally imposed in another state. These provisions protected slavery within the new federal system.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The three-fifths rule governed apportionment, not a fraction of someone’s humanity or a grant of voting rights. The importation clause did not require states to admit enslaved people or abolish slavery in 1808. The text was signed in 1787; the new government began in 1789. A 1643 New England agreement provided for returning servants, but the sources checked do not establish direct borrowing by the 1787 delegates.
Sources
- National Park Service: Constitution and the Underground Railroad ↗
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 3, p. 46; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- U.S. Constitution, Article I, §2 cl. 3 and §9 cl. 1; Article II, §1 cl. 2; Article IV, §2 cl. 3; Article V; National Archives transcription ↗
- Articles of Confederation of the United Colonies of New England, May 19, 1643, article 8; Avalon transcription ↗
- Madison’s Convention notes, August 28, 1787; proposed fugitive-slave and servant provision ↗
- Madison’s Convention notes, August 29, 1787; Butler’s service-or-labor motion ↗
- National Archives, Constitution questions and answers; commencement of government on March 4, 1789 ↗