Q2: Assessment 02 - Race and the American Constitution

Inquiry Question: How did the Constitution protect the practice of slavery?

Document A - Context

In 1787, southerners and northerners decided to meet in Philadelphia for the constitutional
convention. For four months the southerners and northerns discussed about the new constitution and
how they wanted to build. The two had a never ending quarrel because of their opposite opinions on
slavery, with southerns being supportive of slavery because it was a way of free and labor and profit,
and northerns being against it because it was over all wrong. .
Document B Paraphrases

After the constitution was declared in fall of 1787 a new law called the three-fifths clause began taking
action. This law made it so that three-fifths of slave population was included with the overall
population of each state, this was beneficial for the lower class, because it provided them with more
representatives meaning they would have more power in congress. Soon later the constitution began
to become concerned with the idea of Atlantic slave trade which was when people from Africa were
dragged to America through using the Atlantic ocean as a way of transportation. The southerners
wanted this to continue and the northerners wanted this foolishness to come to an end, after some
time of bickering about the topic, they all came to the agreement that this would continue for only 20
more years then it would have to come to an end. George Washington who was a very well known
and respected wealthy white man was not against slavery for he himself was a slave owner, he
believed that ending slavery would be a catastrophe.

Document C Paraphrase

The constitution restricted the voting rights of free black slaves by not protecting them from racial
discrimination acts and by limiting where they could vote or could not. In the Northwest territory rights
of free black slaves were limited by prohibiting black settlement at all.

Claim

The constitution protected the practice of slavery by constantly rejecting the rights and
opinions of the slaves.