How did the Founders think about slavery? How did it affect the construction of the Constitutional system?

Professor Randy Barnett notes that many of the Founders were opposed to slavery but they believed that the states ought to be allowed to govern themselves on this and other issues. Professor Barnett explains that the Constitution barely addresses the slavery question, leading to what was known as the “freedom national, slavery local” position. Congress could discourage or abolish slavery in territories and other federal jurisdictions but each state was free to decide the local slavery issue. The Reconstruction Amendments, passed after the Civil War, changed the Constitution to mandate both freedom national and freedom local.

Professor Randy E. Barnett is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts, and is Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution.

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As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.

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