Fugitive Slave Clause

Before we move on, we should also acknowledge a disturbing part of the Constitution's history.

The original Article 4 contained the Fugitive Slave Clause, which required people who escaped slavery to be returned.

This clause helped protect the institution of slavery.

The 13th Amendment later abolished slavery and made that provision unenforceable.

So it's important to bear in mind that while northern states had freed themselves of slavery in their midst, they remained within the United States and under the law of the United States.

Under the law of the U.S. Constitution, the original Constitution, there was a Fugitive Slave Clause that bound all states within the Union to return what was called runaway property.

So if you escaped from slavery in Maryland and you made your way to Pennsylvania, you were not fully free because there was always the danger that that some constable or some posse or slave catchers would come and grab you and take you before a magistrate.

And it would be ruled that you were a former property back in the state of Maryland and take you back there.

yeah, that's still in the Constitution.

The Constitution also contains a Fugitive Slave Clause requiring any escaped slave to be returned to their master.

And this meant that a slave couldn't escape slavery by moving to a state where slavery was outlawed, which meant that on some level, some states couldn't enforce their own laws.

Spoiler alert, this becomes problematic.

South Carolina's Declaration of Independence hinges on the nature of contract law.

Basically, they argue that the Constitution is a contract, and that the northern states are in violation of that contract by ignoring a part of the Constitution called the Fugitive Slave Clause, which reads, quote, 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." There's been a whole controversy in the U.S.

over this already, with Congress passing laws like the Fugitive Slave Act that require non-slaveholding states to comply with this clause of the Constitution.

And South Carolina's Declaration of Independence argues that the northern states have been ignoring these laws.

He laments, "20 years will produce all the mischief that can be apprehended from the liberty to import slaves.

So long a term will be more dishonorable to the national character than to say nothing about it in the Constitution." The slave states win a final victory three days later, on August 28th, with the Fugitive Slave Clause.

This makes it a constitutional statement of fact that enslaved Americans who run away and make it to a free state are not free in the eyes of the government and can be returned to slavery.

Once again, the word slave is avoided, but everyone knows what the clause means.

Many states have their own such declarations, so wouldn't adding one be redundant? Well, right or wrong, guided by that logic, the convention quickly moves forward without one.

September 15th, one of the longest days at the convention as they fine-tune the document with small but meaningful edits.

For instance, anti-slavery delegates feel a win as the fugitive slave clause in Article IV, Section 2 changes from "person legally held to service or labor" to "person held to service or labor." Removing the word legally removes an implication of morality or justification for slavery.

They now have a seven-article document.