POLITICAL SCIENCE

Slavery and the Declaration of Independence

The Dilemma of Slavery at the Founding

• Contradiction: The foundational commitment to "all men are created equal" clashed directly with the institution of slavery.

• Founders' Awareness: The Founding Fathers, including Jefferson, were aware of the immorality and injustice of slavery. Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration even accused King George III of refusing colonial efforts to legislate against the slave trade.

• Practical Problem: The main challenge was the practical problem of abolishing slavery due to the large slave population lacking education and job training, being entirely dependent on white overseers. This raised fears of chaos and the need for significant government intervention (welfare benefits, job training) that did not exist at the time.

• Kicking it Down the Road: The issue was deferred, with some founders optimistically believing slavery would die out naturally within a few generations.

  • Reasons for Optimism (Pre-Cotton Gin):

    • Lack of Profitability: Slavery was generally considered an inefficient economic system. Most Southern farmers were subsistence farmers, not getting rich from crops like wheat, corn, rice, and tobacco (tobacco being the most profitable). The expectation was that a more efficient labor system would replace it.

Constitutional Compromises on Slavery

• The South's Ultimatum: At the Constitutional Convention, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina explicitly stated that there would be no Constitution without protection for slavery. The dilemma for the framers was either to eliminate slavery (risking secession or non-ratification by slave states) or make compromises to form a unified nation.

• Three Major Compromises:

  1. Three-Fifths Compromise:

     • Provision: Slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of both representation in the House of Representatives and direct taxation.

     • Southern Desire: Southerners wanted slaves counted as a full person to increase their representation in the House and Electoral College.

     • Northern Stance: Northerners resisted this, arguing against counting slaves as full persons for representation without also fully taxing them.

     • Anti-Slavery Interpretation (Incentive Mechanism): This compromise could be viewed as an anti-slavery element by offering a tangible benefit (more power, less tax burden for a full person) if slaves were emancipated. Emancipated individuals would count as whole persons for representation.

  2. Transatlantic Slave Trade (Importation Clause):

     • Provision: Congress was prohibited from banning the importation of slaves until $1808$, a 20-year period from the ratification of the Constitution.

     • Immediate Action Post-$1808$: Congress promptly cut off the international slave trade in $1808$.

     • Anti-Slavery Interpretation (Path to Disintegration): The deadline was seen as significant, aiming to put slavery on a path to disintegration. Without a replenishable supply, demand would eventually make slavery too expensive.

     • Free Labor replacing Slave Labor: The founders hoped free labor, seen as more efficient, would replace slave labor by $1808$.

       • Efficiency of Free Labor:

         • Financial Benefits: Free laborers receive wages, stimulating the economy through their purchases.

         • Lower Overhead for Owners: Owners do not pay for healthcare, lodging, food, or upkeep of free laborers.

         • Negotiating Power: Free laborers can negotiate contracts; low wages would deter workers, forcing owners to pay more.

         • Higher Productivity: Free laborers work willingly, are psychologically invested, and respond to incentives (e.g., $50 per extra bushel of tobacco).</p></li><li><p><strong>Reduced Oversight:</strong> Less need for overseers and coercion, as free laborers are motivated by self-interest.</p></li></ul></li></ul></li><li><p><strong>Land Scarcity (Pre-Louisiana Purchase):</strong> The limited availability of land on the Eastern Seaboard meant fewer opportunities for the growing population of farmers' sons, pushing them towards free labor. This factor was expected to contribute to slavery's decline.</p></li></ul></li><li><p><strong>Fugitive Slave Clause:</strong></p><ul><li><p><strong>Provision:</strong> Escaped slaves found in free states were to be returned to their owners.</p></li><li><p><strong>Constitutional Ambiguity:</strong> The Constitution notably did not specify <em>who</em> was responsible for the return (federal government, state governments, or slave owners). This ambiguity led to significant conflict over the next$40$years, as Northern states increasingly denied enforcing the clause.</p></li></ul></li></ol></li><li><p><strong>Language in the Constitution:</strong> The Constitution deliberately avoided using the word "slavery," referring instead to "persons held to service or labor" or "persons." This ambiguity was seen by some as potentially undermining the institution by recognizing slaves as "people" with fundamental rights, creating a blatant contradiction.</p></li><li><p><strong>"Necessary Evil" Justification:</strong> Southerners generally viewed slavery as a "necessary evil," recognizing its immorality but believing it essential for the Southern economy. They also drew parallels to historical regimes (like Rome or Greece) that relied on slavery for their founding.</p></li><li><p><strong>Slavery in America vs. Other Places:</strong> American slavery was qualitatively different, being intimately tied to race. This linkage meant that abolishing slavery alone would not eliminate racism, a much harder problem to solve.</p></li><li><p><strong>Frederick Douglass's View:</strong> Douglass likened slavery in the Constitution to "scaffolding on a building" – ugly but temporary, expecting it to be deconstructed.</p></li><li><p><strong>Framer's Expectations vs. Reality:</strong> In$1787$, it was considered reasonable to believe slavery was on the path to destruction, given the perceived economic inefficiency and the hope for free labor. However, utopian dreams (like repatriating slaves to Liberia) proved impractical.</p></li></ul><h4 id="00a15953-651d-4e64-92b6-7bb0083d708d" data-toc-id="00a15953-651d-4e64-92b6-7bb0083d708d" collapsed="false" seolevelmigrated="true">The Reversal: Cotton Gin, Expansion, and the Missouri Compromise</h4><ul><li><p><strong>The Cotton Gin (Early 1800s):</strong></p><ul><li><p><strong>Profitability:</strong> The cotton gin, though not invented at the time of the Constitution's drafting, revolutionized cotton production.</p></li><li><p><strong>Southern Soil:</strong> American Southern soil proved ideal for high-quality cotton.</p></li><li><p><strong>Industrial Revolution (England):</strong> England's textile mills created an insatiable demand for raw cotton, making it a lucrative cash crop for the South.</p></li><li><p><strong>Economic Shift:</strong> By$1805$, the rate of return on cotton equaled all other domestic farm products combined.</p></li><li><p><strong>Affordable Inefficiency:</strong> While slavery remained an inefficient system, the immense profit from cotton made the inefficiency affordable for Southern plantation owners.</p></li></ul></li><li><p><strong>Louisiana Purchase (Thomas Jefferson, Expansion):</strong></p><ul><li><p><strong>Doubling the US Size:</strong> The Louisiana Purchase significantly expanded US territory, opening vast tracts of fertile farmland west of the Mississippi.</p></li><li><p><strong>Eliminating Pressure for Free Labor:</strong> This expansion provided new land for farmers' sons, removing the economic pressure for Southerners to transition from slave labor to free labor.</p></li><li><p><strong>Reluctance to Change:</strong> An economic system in place for centuries proved difficult to abandon, especially when it was working profitably.</p></li></ul></li><li><p><strong>Missouri Compromise ($1820$$):

           • Growing Tensions: Bitter congressional debates arose over whether new territories should enter as free or slave states.

           • The Line: Congress drew a line across the country (the end of the Louisiana Purchase): states above the line were free, states below could be slave states.

           • Jefferson's "Fire Bell in the Night": Thomas Jefferson viewed the Missouri Compromise with alarm, likening it to a "fire bell in the night" – a warning of a spreading danger.

           • "Having the Wolf by the Tail": Jefferson expressed the profound dilemma of slavery, suggesting that both holding onto and letting go of slavery presented catastrophic risks.

         The Haitian Revolution and The Fear of Race War

         • Haitian Revolution: Slave revolts in Haiti and the Caribbean, particularly the Haitian Revolution (where slaves brutally murdered white inhabitants), added to the pot of Southern fears.

         • Fear of Race War: Many Southerners believed that liberating slaves would lead to a violent race war, exacerbated by the fact that in some states (like South Carolina), slaves outnumbered white populations.

         Political Currents and the Shift in Southern Opinion

         • Northern Public Opinion: While many Northerners were anti-slavery, this did not equate to anti-racism. They were often uncomfortable with racial integration and feared economic competition from freed slaves migrating North.

         • Slavery as a "Positive Good": Over time, Southern intellectual currents shifted from viewing slavery as a "necessary evil" to a "positive good" beneficial for both whites and blacks.

           • Economic Rationale: The Southern economy was seen as resting entirely on slave labor; emancipation would be disastrous.

           • Theological Justification: Southern preachers cited Bible passages (especially in the Old Testament) that seemed to tolerate slavery, leading to a "theological war" over slavery's morality.

           • Racial Superiority: Slavery fostered a mindset of white racial and intellectual superiority, making it harder to abolish.

           • Pseudoscience (Ethnology): The nascent field of sociology in the South, primarily ethnology, produced biased research purporting to show black inferiority based on skull capacity, reinforcing the idea that blacks were only fit for manual labor.

           • Medical Pseudoscience: White physicians invented mental diseases to explain "aberrant behavior" like running away from plantations.

           • Confirmation Bias: These "scientific" findings were published and readily accepted in the South due to confirmation bias, reinforcing existing prejudices.

         • Entrenched Racism: This shift made abolishing slavery easier than rooting out entrenched racism, which persisted even after the Civil War.

         Anti-Slavery Movements: Higher Law vs. Popular Sovereignty

         William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolitionist Movement

         • Abolitionist Stance: Garrison, a prominent anti-slavery advocate and editor of The Liberator, argued for immediate abolition of slavery, not gradualism.

         • Declaration of Independence as Higher Law: Abolitionists drew heavily from the Declaration, particularly the phrase "we are all created equal" and endowed with "natural rights."

           • Divine Inspiration: The Declaration was viewed as divinely inspired, reflecting God's law.

           • Constitution as "Evil Document": Any law or constitutional provision contrary to the Declaration (God's law) was deemed null and void. Garrison famously ripped copies of the Constitution in public to dramatize its perceived illegitimacy due to slavery compromises.

         • Separation of Church and State: This abolitionist reliance on "higher law" (God's law