With the growth of the African slave trade, slavery in America became associated with race, and with the fall of the Native American populations, it was Africans who were largely enslaved. This paper will attempt to answer how slavery developed as a national issue during the revolution and constitutional convention. Specifically, how the Constitution dealt with the question of Slavery and if it was an effective solution.
In order, to uphold to The Declaration of Independence’s and after America won its independence from Great Britain in 1783 it became obvious that the United States needed a stronger unified government in order to establish itself as a Country. So in 1786, Alexander Hamilton, called for a constitutional convention to discuss …show more content…
Slavery was brought up at the convention because some delegates wanted a republic. They assumed a republic would protect the rights of their citizens. Others wanted a federal system. In a federal system, Congress would share power with the states. Lastly, the House of Representatives, the number of representatives would rest on the state’s population. Therefore, it would create three branches of government that’s purpose was to check and balance each other
Although Southern slave owners declared that slaves were held as property, Southern delegates at the Constitutional Convention wanted slaves to count as full individuals for purposes of determining representation in Congress. If all slaves were counted toward the representatives, then the South would have had more power in Congress and in shaping the nation’s laws. On the other hand, Northern delegates did not want to include slaves when determining representation and therefore denying Southern states the advantage in the national …show more content…
This was due to the economy, since it was reliant on slaves. Their cash crops of tobacco, indigo, and rice relied on slave labor. The founding fathers recognized slavery was wrong, a lot of colonists, even slave holders, despised slavery. Jefferson called it a “hideous blot” on America. George Washington, who owned hundreds of slaves, criticized it. James Mason, a Virginia slave owner, condemned it as evil. However the topic was not exposed in the Constitution and was avoided, but it did set the tone for ending slavery, ensuring fair representation to the government and protecting individual rights.

Was this an Effective solution?
The Constitution has often been called a “living tribute to the art of compromise”. The Convention had representatives from every corner of the United States, including the South, where slavery was most obvious. Georgia and the two Carolinas allowed salivary and threatened to leave the convention if the trade were banned. A special committee worked out another compromise in which Congress would have the power to ban the slave trade. As a result, the states agreed to end the slave trade by 1808.