On the 200th anniversary of the ratification of the US Constitution, Thurgood Marshall, the first

African American to sit on the Supreme Court, asserted that the Constitution was "defective from the

start." He pointed out that the Framers omitted a majority of Americans when they wrote the phrase,

"We the People" in the Constitution's preamble. While some members of the Constitutional

Convention voiced "eloquent objections" to slavery, they according to Marshall --- ultimately

"consented to a document which laid a foundation for the tragic events which were to follow."

The word "slave" does not appear in the Constitution. The framers consciously avoided the word,

recognizing that it would taint the remainder of the document. Nevertheless, slavery received

important protections in the Constitution. One of those protections is credited with assuring the

election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800. The framers of the Constitution believed that concessions on

slavery were the price for the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. They

were convinced that if the Constitution restricted the slave trade, at least two states --- South

Carolina and Georgia --- would refuse to join the Union.

But by sidestepping the slavery issue, the framers left the seeds for future conflict. After the

convention approved the great compromise, Madison wrote: "It seems now to be pretty well

understood that the real difference of interests lies not between the large and small [states] but

between the northern and southern states. The institution of slavery and its consequences form the

line of discrimination."

Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, about 25 owned slaves. Many of the framers

harbored moral qualms about slavery. Some, including Benjamin Franklin (a former slaveholder) and

Alexander Hamilton (who was born in a slave colony in the British West Indies) became members of

anti-slavery societies. Ultimately, many of the Founders compromised their morals (many were

recorded as being opposed to slavery), and power (in some cases, states bowed to slaveholding

counterparts in order to ensure the Constitution would be ratified) in the name of economics.

Slavery, when all was said and done, was both profitable and convenient for many white

Americans-and not just in the South.

Three clauses relating to slavery did make it into the final draft of the Constitution, all after varied

amounts of debate and compromise during the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

This assignment requires you to:

Identify each of the three clauses by Article, Section, and clause number.

Specifically provide the wording of those clauses.

Describe what the wording of those clauses means.

Discuss the short- and long-term consequences of each clause (e.g., what happened as a result of

each clause's adoption).