August 22, 1787: Slavery in a Republic

Storm-Tossed Ships Wrecked on a Rocky Coast by Johann Christoph Dietzsch

National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.121881.html

“They [enslavers] bring the judgment of Heaven on a country. As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities."

--George Mason

Wednesday, August 22, 1787: The Convention Today:

The Convention continued the argument from yesterday over Article 7, Section 4 of the Constitution: “No tax or duty shall be laid by the Legislature on articles exported from any State; nor on the migration or importation of such persons as the several States shall think proper to admit; nor shall such migration or importation be prohibited.” The seemingly innocuous wording (“importations of such persons”) was a euphemism for the slave trade, which the draft Constitution allowed to continue for perpetuity and forbade the United States Congress from ever taxing or prohibiting.

Sherman (CT) (who was not an enslaver) did not want to change this language, even though he “disapproved of the slave-trade.” “The public good did not require” a ban on the slave trade. He noted that several states had already abolished slavery and believed that the remaining states would do so “by degrees.” He urged the importance of quickly finishing the Constitution.

Mason (VA) (who enslaved hundreds of people, but considered himself anti-slavery) called the slave trade “an infernal traffic” and said slave rebellions, especially those which might be encouraged by foreign enemies, were a serious concern (during the Revolutionary War, Britain had armed and fielded as soldiers former slaves who fled their enslavers). He worried that slavery would spread into America’s western territories if South Carolina and Georgia were allowed to continue the slave trade. He gave multiple reasons for why slavery was damaging to America:

• “Slavery discourages arts and manufactures.”
• “The poor despise labor when performed by slaves.”
• “They prevent the emigration of whites, who really enrich and strengthen a country.”
• “Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant.”

He concluded by lamenting that some northerners “from a lust of gain, embarked in this nefarious traffic.” It was “essential” that the Constitution empower the federal government “to prevent the increase of slavery.”

Ellsworth (CT), noting that he had never enslaved anybody, “could not judge of the effects of slavery on character,” but if ethics were to enter the debate, then banning the slave trade would not be enough: “we ought to go further and free those already in the country”—an unlikely prospect. He noted that the enslaved populations of Virginia and Maryland grew so fast from natural increase “that it is cheaper to raise than import them,” while the humid climate of South Carolina and Georgia’s “sickly rice swamps” killed so many enslaved people that “foreign supplies are necessary.” His conclusion was that banning the slave trade was thus “unjust towards South Carolina and Georgia.” Plus, “as population increases, poor laborers will be so plenty as to render slaves useless. Slavery in time, will not be a speck in our country.” He didn’t worry about slave rebellions, since the fear of such would give enslavers “motive to kind treatment of the slaves.”

Charles Pinckney (SC) (who enslaved over a hundred people) said, “If slavery be wrong, it is justified by the example of all the world... In all ages one half of mankind have been slaves.” Besides, “if the Southern States were let alone, they will probably of themselves stop importations,” something he would personally vote for “as a citizen of South Carolina.” But to give the US Congress power to ban the slave trade would perhaps make it impossible to get the Constitution adopted.

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (who enslaved 250 people) argued that even if he and the other South Carolina delegates signed the Constitution and used all “their personal influence, it would be of no avail towards” getting South Carolina to ratify the Constitution if Congress could ban the slave trade. He rued that Virginia “will gain by stopping the importations. Her slaves will rise in value, and she has more than she wants. It would be unequal, to require South Carolina and Georgia to confederate on such unequal terms.” Moreover, “the importation of slaves would be for the interest of the whole Union. The more slaves, the more produce to employ the carrying trade; the more consumption also; and the more of this, the more revenue for the common treasury.” He did admit “it to be reasonable that slaves should be dutied like other imports.”

Baldwin (GA) (who is unlikely to have been an enslaver) thought the only proper subjects for the Constitution were “national” and that slavery was “of a local nature.” People in his state feared that “a General Government” would empower “the central States” at the expense of small, remote Georgia. He asked the delegates to imagine how suspicious Georgians would view the Constitution if it endangered the slave trade, one of their “favorite prerogatives.”

Wilson (PA) (who enslaved a man named Thomas Purcell) found it preposterous that some delegates were simultaneously claiming that South Carolina and Georgia would eventually ban the slave trade and that those same states would refuse to enact a Constitution that let the US Congress do the same thing. He noted that enslaved Africans were the only import that could not be taxed, which incentivized the slave trade.

Gerry (MA) (not an enslaver) thought the Constitution should be silent on the issue of slavery, “but ought to be careful not to give any sanction to it.”

Dickinson (DE) (who had emancipated his dozens of slaves a year earlier) “considered it as inadmissible, on every principle of honor and safety, that the importation of slaves should be authorized to the States by the Constitution.” Since the slave trade impacted “national happiness” it was a question suited for the national government, not the state governments. Like Wilson, he was skeptical that any states would refuse to adopt the Constitution over this issue, “especially as [a ban on the slave trade] was not likely to be immediately exercised by the General Government.”

Williamson (NC) (not an enslaver) thought North Carolina and the other “Southern States could not be members of the Union” if Congress could ban the slave trade.

King (MA) (who had inherited a few slaves and later in life purchased and subsequently manumitted at least one) “thought the subject should be considered in a political light only.” He took the southerners’ threat seriously: a potential ban on the slave trade would ruin the Constitution’s chance of adoption in the South. At the same time, the northern states might not adopt the Constitution if the Constitution allowed taxes on all imports except enslaved Africans.

Langdon (NH) (who grew up in a slave-owning family but likely either never inherited slaves or had already emancipated them) wanted to enable Congress to ban the slave trade because he did not trust the assurances that the southern states would eventually do so on their own. C. C. Pinckney admitted that South Carolina was unlikely to permanently ban the slave trade any time soon but stated that his state did currently, and would continue, to ban it “occasionally.” As a compromise, he moved to have a committee study whether to allow Congress to tax the slave trade.

Rutledge (SC) (who enslaved dozens of people) said the people of the Carolinas and Georgia “will never be such fools as to give up” their right to import enslaved Africans. He seconded C. C. Pinckney’s motion.

Gouverneur Morris (PA) (not an enslaver) wanted “the whole subject” to go to a committee, “including the clauses relating to taxes on exports and to a navigation act. These things may form a bargain among the Northern and Southern States.”

Sherman stated “it was better to let the Southern States import slaves” than to have the southern states leave the United States. He didn’t want the slave trade to be taxed “because it implied they [enslaved Africans] were property.” He admitted that if Congress had the power to ban the slave trade, it would do so and be right to do so.

Randolph (VA) (an enslaver) also wanted to have a committee study the question “in order that some middle ground might, if possible, be found.” Madison’s (VA) notes say that Randolph “could never agree to the clause as it stands. He would sooner risk the Constitution.” The clause as written “would revolt the Quakers, the Methodists, and many others in the States having no slaves. On the other hand, two States might be lost to the Union” if the Constitution didn’t protect the slave trade.

The Convention voted 7-3-1 (New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Delaware opposed; Massachusetts absent) to have a committee consider a compromise regarding taxation, imports, exports, and the slave trade.

The eleven members (one from each state present) appointed to this committee were:

• John Langdon
• Rufus King
• William Samuel Johnson (CT) (an enslaver)
• William Livingston (NJ) (an abolitionist and not an enslaver, but from a family of slave traders)
• George Clymer (PA) (who as a seven-year-old had inherited an enslaved man, “Ned,” who died soon thereafter)
• John Dickinson
• Luther Martin (MD) (who enslaved six people)
• James Madison (VA) (who enslaved over a hundred people)
• Hugh Williamson
• Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
• Abraham Baldwin

With only one or two exceptions (both of whom were southerners and had spoken earlier for slaveholding interests), everyone on this committee either enslaved human beings at some point in his life or came from a family that did so.

Moving past the debate over slavery, the Convention turned to a report from the Committee of Detail, which had been charged with drafting clauses in the Constitution incorporating ideas proposed by Charles Pinckney (SC) and Madison (VA). They also received a report from a committee of five which had analyzed the issue of allowing the federal government to regulate state militias and assume state debts.

The Convention passed motions made by Gerry (MA) and McHenry (MD) prohibiting Congress from making bills of attainder (laws under which defendants don’t have a right to free trial) and ex post facto laws (which punish people for actions which were legal at the time they were committed). It then adjourned before digging deeply into the committee reports.

Synopsis

• The delegates argued over a section of the draft Constitution which forbade the United States Congress from banning or taxing the slave trade.
• After an extensive and passionate debate over the slave trade, the delegates were unable to come to a resolution.
• A committee was formed to try to reach a compromise involving taxation, importation, exportation, and the slave trade.
• Two different previously tasked committees submitted reports incorporating clauses that had been proposed as additions to the Constitution.
• Bans on bills of attainder and ex post facto laws were explicitly added to the Constitution.

Delegates Today

• Johnson (CT) dined at his boarding house and visited John Fitch's steamboat.
• Washington (VA) dined with Mary and Robert Morris (PA) at the Hills’ and visited at Samuel and Elizabeth Powels’ home. He also dropped a note asking Clement Biddle if he knew of a responsible person who would contract to buy herring, and if so, how many barrels.
• McClurg (VA) wrote from Richmond to Madison (VA) to thank Madison for his letter. He hoped to hear that the veto of state laws had been put back in the Constitution after he’d left the Convention.

Philadelphia Today

• Today was clear and pleasant.
• The Gazette carried a political ad: “To the Freeholders and other Electors of the City and County of Philadelphia, My warmest thanks are due you for the honor you have done me, by choosing me one of your representatives in the General Assembly these three years past; permit me now earnestly to solicit the favor of your Votes and Interest at the ensuing Election, to place me on the Return with the present Sheriff, for that Office, at the expiration of his Time ... William Will”