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Delve into how the U.S. Constitution addressed slavery, citizenship, and voting rights. Learn about key clauses, citizenship criteria, and voting regulations in early American history.
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Station A: U.S. Constitution, Slavery and Inequality
What did the Constitution have to say about slavery? • The words “slave” and “slavery” do not appear in the Constitution. ? • The Constitution gave the national government no power to *interfere with slavery in the states. *Interfere = prevent from continuing
The Constitution does include 3 clauses that pertain to the institution of slavery. Article I, Section 9, Clause 1: Closing the International Slave Trade Sec 9. The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight.
Article I, Section 2, Clause 3: The Three-Fifths Compromise Sec 2. 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 Numbers 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 IV, Section 2, Clause 3: The Fugitive Slave Clause Sec 3. 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.
The Constitution identifies 3 populations of people: YES CITIZENS NOT CITIZENS NOT CITIZENS “free citizens of the states/nation” Indians – members of independent tribes and not part of the nation “other persons” (slaves = 3/5 of a person) But, how did non-Indians and non “other-persons” (slaves) become citizens?
When the Constitution was ratified, there was NO TRUE DEFINITION OF CITIZENSHIP OR SET REQUIREMENTS. BUT… Because the young United States followed British common law, it accepted the rule of jus soli, or place of birth.
How does someone NOT BORN in the United States become a citizen? According to the Constitution – Congress has the power to… To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization Fancy word for the process by which someone not born in a country can become a citizen.
Almost immediately, Congress passed its first of many naturalization acts. Here is a summary of the first Act: Naturalization Act of 1790 • A child born in a foreign country is a citizen if the father was a citizen of the United States. • Restricted the process of becoming a citizen from abroad to “free white persons” of “good moral character.”
The principle of universal suffrage, as adopted in the United States, was the unrestrained exercise of that right on the part of all white male citizens of over twenty-one years of age, unless the right was forfeited by some violation of law on the part of the individual. Thus, the white-males of age constituted (made up) the political nation. United States Magazine and Democratic Review (1822)
