SlaveryInTheConstitution

 Slavery in the Constitution At the time of the American Revolution, slavery was a profitable institution in the British colonies of North America, though it was not present everywhere. Slavery was the most prosperous in the “low-country areas”, such as the colonies of Virginia and Maryland. While the new nation was still creating a constitution, most people assumed that slavery would gradually end in the next century. White southerners nevertheless managed to win from the North three important concessions that would protect the institution of slavery. The first was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which enabled slave catchers to cross state lines in the pursuit of runaway slaves; next, the Three-Fifths Clause, which was an agreement to count every slave as three-fifths of a free person when determining a state's representation in the House of Representatives and in the Electoral College; and finally, the continuation of the slave trade with Africa until 1808, which brought thousands of slaves to America.