RE: [asa] Expelled and ID (slavery)

Things that are not in the U.S. Constitution http://www.usconstitution.net/constnot.html <http://www.usconstitution.net/constnot.html>

Slavery

Originally, the Framers were very careful about avoiding the words "slave" and "slavery" in the text of the Constitution. Instead, they used phrases like "importation of Persons" at Article 1, Section 9 <http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A1Sec9.html> for the slave trade, and "other persons" at Article 1, Section 2 <http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A1Sec2.html> for slaves. Not until the 13th Amendment <http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am13.html> was slavery mentioned specifically in the Constitution. There the term was used to ensure that there was to be no ambiguity as what exactly the words were eliminating. In the 14th Amendment <http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am14.html> , the euphemism "other persons" (and the three-fifths value given a slave) was eliminated. The Slavery Topic Page <http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_slav.html> has a lot more detail.
Thanks to ches04 for the idea.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal"

This phrase is commonly attributed to the Constitution, but it comes from the Declaration of Independence <http://www.usconstitution.net/declar.html> .

________________________________

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu on behalf of David Opderbeck
Sent: Thu 5/22/2008 3:27 PM
To: j burg
Cc: Dehler, Bernie; asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Re: [asa] Expelled and ID (slavery)

Burgy -- tair enough -- race in America certainly was and is complex. It's true that some of the founders were anti-slavery. Still, I get a kick out of jabbing Constitutional originalists with the fact that the original Constitution didn't recognize blacks (or women) as full persons under the law.

On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 3:14 PM, j burg <hossradbourne@gmail.com> wrote:

        On 5/21/08, David Opderbeck <dopderbeck@gmail.com> wrote:
> Lincoln and the civil war were almost a hundred years after the Constitution
> was ratified. The founders didn't address slavery for the most part because
> they didn't consider blacks fully human.
        
        
        My reading of the early history on the US indicates it was a lot more
        complex than that.
        
        One of the more interesting books is NEGRO PRESIDENT. A review is on my website.
        
        Burgy
        
        www.burgy.50megs.com <http://www.burgy.50megs.com/>
        

-- 
David W. Opderbeck
Associate Professor of Law
Seton Hall University Law School
Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology 
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