The Role Of Slavery At The Constitutional Convention In 1787

The framers had never mentioned “slaves” and “slavery” in the Constitution, and this behavior showed the reluctance of framers to include the slavery in the Constitution. In Article I, Section 2, the Constitution noted: “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

The discussion came to an end with the Connecticut Compromise. This compromised stated that there would be a bicameral legislature that had proportional representation of states in the House of Representatives and equal representation in the Senate. The issue of slavery was also a very controversial topic during this convention. Even though some of the states in the north had already began to outlaw slavery, they decided it would be best to go along with states from the south in saying that slavery was an issue for a state on its own to decide. Many of the delegates from the north thought that if they did not agree with southern delegates, the south would not join the Union. The came up with the Three- fifths Compromise that states that slaves would only be counted as three- fifths of a person for the purpose of taxation and to determine how many representatives a state would be able to send to Congress. It was agreed that there was a twenty year guarantee that slave trade would not be abolished.

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 brought together delegates from thirteen divergent states to amend the Articles of Confederation. But James Madison, delegate from Virginia, had other ideas. He set the agenda for the Convention by drafting the Virginia Plan, an entirely new structure for the government. The strengths offered by the Virginia Plan included the framework for a strong, central government which separated powers into three branches: the legislative, executive, and the judicial. In addition, the Virginia Plan had built-in checks and balances between the branches. Madison believed that sovereignty rested with the people, and he proposed proportional representation in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. However,

The main goal of this convention was to review the Articles of Confederation. Madison had held his arguments for a fortified government and laws (p.52 Ellis). His arguments had been the answer for many of the compromises. Through his great opinions and actions, he was given the title "Father of the Constitution". He and other people would improve and rewrite the laws so the articles would be able to be passed. Upon the convention, checks and balances was created to keep one branch of government from being powerful than the other. Madison's ideas of helping to improve the government and laws help establish the United States.

The book report is on "Slavery's Constitution From Revolution to Ratification"1 by David Waldstreicher. This book is primarily a history book that speaks about the creation, ratification, and the implementation of the United States Constitution with regards to slavery. The author is trying to convey to the reader that the Constitution, while never actually mentioning slavery, had slavery written all over it. The author chose this topic to talk about because it's very clear by reading Constitution once that there isn't much discussion about slavery. What Waldstreicher would argue is that this conception is wrong, and the only way to understand that it is incorrect is to go back into the early stages of colonial history and work your way up to

Slaves in the colonies during the revolution were faced with no real options and little liberty. The slaves’ lot in life varied greatly between individual experiences. Those slave owners who had only a few slaves generally treated their slaves better than those with large numbers of slaves. Even if they were treated well, the slaves had little in the way of freedom. They would be required to work throughout the day at the bidding of their masters and had no recourse to whatever punishment was given at their master’s hands. The slaves also had little hope of ever obtaining freedom for themselves and their children (Pavao, n.d.).

James Madison ensured that the American government did not become a Tyranny by writing a new Constitution. The Articles of Confederation became a problem for the United States because they did not work. So in 1787, 55 delegates were called to Philadelphia for a Constitutional Convention. They faced the challenge of creating a new Constitution that could hold the federal government and the states government together without letting any one person gain too much power. The new Constitution guarded against Tyranny by using federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances and fair representation in Congress.

During the writing and ratifying of the Constitution, there were some fundamental issues being debated. The main debate was about whether to amend the Articles of Confederation or write a new constitution. James Madison, a member of the Virginia Assembly, moved the convention along but proposing a document he had drafted called the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan created a central republican form of government. The government would consist of the legislative, executive and judicial branch. It

2. The development of a national railroad system was hampered by which of the following?

When James Madison and the other 56 delegates to the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in May 1787, they intended to amend the Articles of Confederation. They ended up creating a new constitution, and Madison, representing Virginia, became the chief recorder of information. Like all successful political endeavors, the new federal Constitution—written just four years after the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution—has many "fathers" and many origins. None is more important than the economic and political unrest following the war and a band of ultra-nationalists led by Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and George Washington (“The James Madison Papers”). Although the Convention was intended to revise the Articles of Confederation,

James Wilson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, proposed the idea of the three- fifths clause to give the north and the south a chance for compromise. However, the South had strong opinions about counting the slaves as part of the population because the south wanted a better chance at getting more representatives for their states. However, the North did not want the slaves to count as part of the population because the North thought that it would only benefit and empower the smaller states and the slave owners. With the South gaining more population than the North, the north would not have more power. Three-Fifths Compromise stated that Congress would not restrict overseas slave trade for a period of twenty years. Three-Fifths of the slaves would count towards representation and taxation. In 1807, Congress was free to re-address the problem, but it was not until a year later that Congress did revisit the issue and then decided to not allow overseas slave trade. By that point, it was nearly debatable since every state (except Georgia) had included an embargo on overseas slaves in their state constitutions. As one can see the three-fifths clause was one of the major conflict differing from the North and

Slaves were not considered people, they were considered property. Many slave owners thought of slaves the same way they thought of cattle or any other living property. Many believed that since slaves were referred to as property that they should not be allowed to be counted. However, southern states knew that slaves increased their population, which increased with the number of representatives that they had. The southern states were worried that if they did not have enough representatives that the northern states would try and do away with slavery. Therefore, they argued that slaves should be counted. Georgia and South Carolina threatened to secede if slaves weren’t counted. Following their threats the three-fifths clause was passed. In this clause, three- fifths of slaves were allowed to be counted in the representation. Slavery was not going to be allowed to be taken away with this clause in

I think that the writers of the Constitution should have compromised on slavery. After the compromise, the slaves think that they are important and this thinking will keep them working harder. not only that but it also helps them keep their hope up. If they had not compromised then there would not be a Constitution, but a war might start between the two. If I were at the Constitutional Convention I would vote for every slavery have their own vote because they are human. Not only that their thinking might able to help the country economic to

In 1688 the first American movement was the one to abolish slavery when the German and Quakers decent in Pennsylvania. The Quakers establishment had no immediate action for the Quaker Petition against slavery. The first American abolition society was the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully by the Quakers that had strong religious objections of slavery. In 1756 John Woolman gave up his business to campaign against slavery along with other Quakers. Thomas Paine was the first to write an article about the United States abolition of slavery and it was titled “African Slavery in America”.

from legislation. The first legislation passed was the three-fifths compromise. Naturally, southern states wanted slaves to be counted as a whole person because the slave population in the south was larger. The northern states opposed this. The three-fifths compromise stated that three out of five slaves would be counted into population counts to determine the amount of representation in Congress. Other constitutional laws included the section that said the slave trade