Slavery and the New Republic

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Slavery, the American Revolution, and the Constitution
African American soldiers served with valor at the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. In
November 1775, however, Congress decided to exclude blacks from future enlistment out of
a sensitivity to the opinion of southern slave holders. But Lord Dunmore's promise of
freedom to slaves who enlisted in the British army led Congress reluctantly to reverse it
decision, fearful that black soldiers might join the redcoats.
African Americans played an important role in the revolution. They fought at Fort
Ticonderoga and the Battle of Bunker Hill. A slave helped row Washington across the
Delaware. Altogether, some 5,000 free blacks and slaves served in the Continental army
during the Revolution. By 1778, many states, including Virginia, granted freedom to slaves
who served in the Revolutionary war.
The American Revolution had profound effects on the institution of slavery. Several
thousand slaves won their freedom by serving on both sides of the War of Independence. As
a result of the Revolution, a surprising number of slaves were manumitted, while thousands
of others freed themselves by running away. In Georgia alone, 5000 slaves, a third of the
colony's prewar total, escaped. In South Carolina, a quarter of the slaves achieved freedom.
Both the British and the colonists believed that slaves could serve an important role during
the revolution. In April 1775, Lord Dunmore (1732-1809), the royal governor of Virginia,
threatened that he would proclaim liberty to the slaves and reduce Williamsburg to ashes if
the colonists resorted to force against British authority. In November, he promised freedom
to all slaves belonging to rebels who would join "His Majesty's Troops...for the more
speedily reducing the Colony to a proper sense of their duty...." Some eight hundred slaves
joined British forces, some wearing the emblem "Liberty to the Slaves." The British appeal
to slave unrest outraged slave holders not only in the South but in New York's Hudson
Valley. Later, Sir Henry Clinton (1738-1795) promised protection to all slaves who deserted
from the rebels. Clinton's promise may well have contributed to the collapse of the British
cause in the South. By suggesting that the Revolution was a war over slavery, he alienated
many neutrals and even some loyalists.
Meanwhile, an American diplomat, Silas Deane (1737-1789), hatched a secret plan to incite
slave insurrections in Jamaica. Two South Carolinians, John Laurens (1754-1782) and his
father Henry (1724-1792), persuaded Congress to unanimously approve a plan to recruit an
army of 3000 slave troops in South Carolina and Georgia. The federal government would
compensate the slaves' owners and each black would, at the end of the war, be
emancipated and receive $50. The South Carolina legislature rejected the plan, scuttling the
proposal. In the end, however, and in contrast to the later Latin American wars of
independence and the U.S. Civil War, neither the British nor the Americans proved willing to
risk a full-scale social revolution by issuing an emancipation proclamation.
The Constitution and Slavery
On the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution, Thurgood Marshall, the first African
American to sit on the Supreme Court, said that the Constitution was "defective from the
start." He point out that the framers had left out a majority of Americans when they wrote
the phrase, "We the People." While some members of the Constitutional Convention voiced

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"eloquent objections" to slavery, Marshall said they "consented to a document which laid a
foundation for the tragic events which were to follow."
The word "slave" does not appear in the Constitution. The framers consciously avoided the
word, recognizing that it would sully the document. Nevertheless, slavery received
important protections in the Constitution. The notorious Three-fifths clause--which counted
three fifths of the slave population in apportioning representation--gave the South extra
representation in the House and extra votes in the Electoral College. Thomas Jefferson
would have lost the election of 1800 if not for the Three-fifths compromise. The Constitution
also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years. A fugitive
slave clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. The Constitution gave
the federal government the power to put down domestic rebellions, including slave
insurrections.
The framers of the Constitution believed that concessions on slavery were the price for the
support of southern delegates for a strong central government. They were convinced that if
the Constitution restricted the slave trade, South Carolina and Georgia would refuse to join
the Union. But by sidestepping the slavery issue, the framers left the seeds for future
conflict. After the convention approved the great compromise, Madison wrote: "It seems
now to be pretty well understood that the real difference of interests lies not between the
large and small but between the northern and southern states. The institution of slavery
and its consequences form the line of discrimination."
Of the 55 Convention delegates, about 25 owned slaves. Many of the framers harbored
moral qualms about slavery. Some, including Benjamin Franklin (a former slave owner) and
Alexander Hamilton (who was born in a slave colony in the British West Indies) became
members of antislavery societies.
On August 21, 1787, a bitter debate broke out over a South Carolina proposal to prohibit
the federal government from regulating the Atlantic slave trade. Luther Martin of Maryland,
a slaveholder, said that the slave should be subject to federal regulation since the entire
nation would be responsible for suppressing slave revolts. He also considered the slave
trade contrary to America's republican ideals. "It is inconsistent with the principles of the
Revolution," he said, "and dishonorable to the American character to have such a feature in
the constitution."
John Rutledge of South Carolina responded forcefully. "Religion and humanity have nothing
to do with this question," he insisted. Unless regulation of the slave trade was left to the
states, the southern-most states "shall not be parties to the union." A Virginia delegate,
George Mason, who owned hundreds of slaves, spoke out against slavery in ringing terms.
"Slavery," he said, "discourages arts and manufactures. The poor despise labor when
performed by slaves." Slavery also corrupted slave holders and threatened the country with
divine punishment: "Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment
of heaven on a country."
Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut accused slave holders from Maryland and Virginia of
hypocrisy. They could afford to oppose the slave trade, he claimed, because "slaves multiply
so fast in Virginia and Maryland that it is cheaper to raise then import them, whilst in the
sickly rice swamps [of South carolina and Georgia] foreign supplies are necessary."
Ellsworth suggested that ending the slave trade would benefit slave owners in the
Chesapeake region, since the demand for slaves in other parts of the South was increase
the price of slaves once the external supply was cut off.

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The controversy over the Atlantic slave trade was ultimately settled by compromise. In
exchange for a 20-year ban on any restrictions on the Atlantic slave trade, southern
delegates agreed to remove a clause restricting the national government's power to enact
laws requiring goods to be shipped on American vessels (benefiting northeastern
shipbuilders and sailors). The same day this agreement was reached, the convention also
adopted the fugitive slave clause, requiring the return of runaway slaves to their owners.
Was the Constitution a pro-slavery document, as abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison claimed
when he burned the document in 1854 and called it "a covenant with death and an
agreement with Hell"? This question still provokes controversy. If the Constitution
temporarily strengthened slavery, it also created a central government powerful enough to
eventually abolish the institution.
Discussion Topic: Did the framers of the Constitution miss an opportunity to put slavery
on the path to eventual extinction?
In June 1787, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery - the world's first
antislavery society - asked its president, Benjamin Franklin, to deliver an anti-slave trade
resolution to the Constitutional Convention. The resolution declared: "In vain will be
Americans' Pretentions to a love of liberty or regard for national character while they share
in the profits of a Commerce that can only be conducted upon Rivers of human tears and
blood."
Franklin never presented that resolution or any other antislavery materials to the
convention. He explained that he "thought it advisable to let them lie over for the present."
In 1790 Franklin did send a petition to Congress on behalf of the Society asking for the
abolition of slavery and an end to the slave trade. The petition, signed on February 3, 1790,
asked the first Congress, then meeting in New York City, to "devise means for removing the
Inconsistency from the Character of the American People," and to "promote mercy and
justice toward this distressed Race."
The petition was denounced by pro-slavery congressmen and sparked a heated debate in
both the House and the Senate. The Senate took no action on the petition, and the House
referred it to a select committee for further consideration. The committee claimed that the
Constitution restrains Congress from prohibiting the importation or emancipation of slaves
until 1808 and then tabled the petition. On April 17, 1790, just two months later, Franklin
died in Philadelphia at the age of 84.