Identify the various leaders of the Constitutional Convention and analyze the major issues (e.g., distribution of political power, rights of individuals, representation and rights of states, slavery) they debated and how the issues were resolved (Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for History and Social Science) [8.T2.3]
FOCUS QUESTION: What were the major compromises at the Constitutional Convention and how have they impacted American life and government?
Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Mural of delegates to the Constitutional Convention, located at the United States Capitol | "The Constitutional Convention, 1787", Architect of the Capitol, public domain
On May 25, 1787, 55 delegates from every state except Rhode Island arrived at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia to begin the Constitutional Convention. Ranging in age from 26 (New Jersey's Jonathan Dayton) to 81 (Pennsylvania's Benjamin Franklin), the delegates met from May to September and debated the structure of the new government, representation in Congress, the rights of individuals, and the issue of slavery and its future. The compromises they made have continued to dramatically impact the nation's history to the present day.
Once the meeting began, George Washington was elected President of the Convention. Although the attendees were sworn to secrecy, James Madison, the future fourth President, kept notes of nearly every day's proceedings and other delegates kept notes as well. Based on that recorded history, historians and everyday citizens have the opportunity to explore the history-shaping developments of the Constitutional Convention and its key compromises: The Great Compromise; the Three-Fifths Compromise; the Commerce Compromise; the Slave Trade Compromise; and the Electoral College Compromise.
The men who wrote in the Constitution's Preamble that "we the people" seek to "form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty" did so in a country that allowed and profited from African slavery. It was a contradiction between ideals and realities that America lives with to this day.
In his doctoral dissertation about the African Slave Trade written more than 125 years ago, W.E.B. DuBois (1896) framed the contradiction thusly: "It was the plain duty of the colonies to crush the trade and the system in its infancy: They preferred to enrich themselves on its profits." Du Bois continued: "It was the plain duty of a revolution based on 'Liberty' to take steps toward the abolition of slavey: It preferred promises to straightforward action" (p. 152).
How did slavery and the status of enslaved Blacks impact key compromises about the framework of U.S. government and what has been the lasting impact of those decisions? The modules for this topic explore that question.
2.3.1 INVESTIGATE: The Great Compromise - The Virginia and New Jersey Plans
At the outset of the Constitutional Convention, delegates were divided over how much power should be given to each state in the new government.
The Virginia Plan, also named the "Large-State Plan," called for a two-house, bicameral legislature (law-making body), a chief executive (the president), and a court system.
The New Jersey Plan, also named the "Small-State Plan," called for a one-house or "unicameral" legislature where representation would be equal for all of the states. Under that plan, each state would get one elected official and one vote.
Delegates from the larger states tended to support the Virginia Plan because it would give them more power if representation was based on population, while smaller state representatives supported the New Jersey Plan because it would give them more power if representation was uniform across all states.
The Great Compromise created two houses of the national legislature: a House of Representatives whose membership was based on population and a Senate where each state had two voting members. There is more information about this compromise at a resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki page Constitutional Convention and the Founders.
Suggested Learning Activities
Reenact the Constitutional Convention
Conduct one of two Constitution Role Plays: Whose “More Perfect Union”? and "The Constitutional Convention: Who Really Won?" (registration required from Zinn Education Project)
Online Resources for the Constitutional Convention
2.3.2 UNCOVER: Thomas Jefferson's Draft Constitution (1776) and Thurgood Marshall's Bicentennial Speech (1987)
Two documents—one by Thomas Jefferson, the other by Thurgood Marshall—written some 200 years apart, demonstrate the complicated connections between slavery and the Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson was a major slave owner; at any given time some 130 people were enslaved at his Monticello plantation (Slavery FAQs - Property from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello website). However, in his Draft Constitution for Virginia of 1776 (never debated and now largely forgotten) Jefferson called for ending slavery, specific rights for native peoples, outlawing most capital punishment, eliminating any standing army, and not allowing politicians to run for reelection.
More than 200 years later, on May 6, 1987, Thurgood Marshall, grandson of a slave, attorney in the Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation case, and first African American Supreme Court Justice, gave what has become known as the "Bicentennial Speech" to a patent and trademark law group meeting in Hawaii. Marshall stated that the Constitution was "defective from the start."
Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): "Thurgood Marshall, 1967"by Yoichi R. Okamoto
While the founders avoided using the term in the text of the document, the Constitution, in Marshall's mind, provided important protections to slavery (notably the Three-Fifths clause) that have undermined and contradicted American ideals since its signing. Here is the full Text of Remarks of Thurgood Marshall at the Annual Seminar of the San Francisco Patent and Trademark Law Association.
Suggested Learning Activities
State your view
Do you agree or disagree with Thurgood Marshall's conclusion that the Constitution was "defective from the start'?
Why was Thomas Jefferson's draft Constitution not adopted?
2.3.3 ENGAGE: Did the Three-Fifth Compromise Make the Constitution a Pro-Slavery Document?
African slavery, the slave trade, the economics of plantation agriculture, and the morality of human bondage in a nation where the Declaration of Independence had declared "all men are created equal" produced contentious debates at the Constitutional Convention.
Slavery of Africans had existed since the beginnings of European colonization. Although the first Africans arrived at the Jamestown colony in 1619, it is estimated that beginning in the early 1500s, more than 500,000 Africans had been brought to the Americas against their will. In total, concluded Henry Louis Gates, 12.5 million Africans were sent to the New World, however, only 10.7 million survived the Middle Passage.
Massachusetts was the first slave-holding colony in America—its colonial governor, John Winthrop, helped write the first law legalizing slavery in North America in 1641. Massachusetts abolished slavery in 1783 and declared the slave trade illegal in 1788 (The Case for Ending Slavery, Massachusetts Historical Society).
By 1787, 18% of the population of the United States were slaves; in Virginia nearly 40% of the population was enslaved. In other states, slavery was in decline—Vermont was the first of the original colonies to abolish slavery in 1777, followed by Pennsylvania in 1780.
Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): Graphic of the number of slaves in each of the 13 colonies and the percentage of each colony's population they comprised, in 1770. | "Slavery in the 13 colonies"by Stilfehler
At the Constitutional Convention, delegates debated whether slaves should be counted as part of the population in determining representation in Congress. Disagreement over this question led to bitter tensions among delegates. The southern slave-holding states wanted slaves counted to gain more representatives in Congress; the northern non-slave states disagreed.
In the Three-Fifths Compromise, it was agreed that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person for Congressional representation and taxes. While some delegates favored abolition of slavery, no one at the Convention proposed that African Americans should be granted citizenship.
The Three-Fifths Compromise gave states in the South, in the words of historian Garry Wills, a "slave power" whereby they received one-third more seats in the House of Representatives than if only the free population was counted. Wills concluded that "right up to the Civil War, the management of the government was disproportionately controlled by the South" (Wills, 2003, p. 6). A White Southerner from Virginia was President for 32 of the nation's first 36 years: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe.
Media Literacy Connections: Analyzing Media Stereotypes Towards Black Americans
Powerful, persistent, and pervasive White racism toward Black Americans - built into the structures of American government at the Constitutional Convention - has been perpetuated throughout history by negative media stereotypes.
The following activities ask you to analyze media representation of Black and African Americans to uncover stereotypes and, in response, design media that affirm and celebrate Black lives and culture.
Lesson plan on the Constitutional Convention, focusing on the issue of slavery
Standard 2.3 Conclusion
The basic structure of American government was assembled through the debates and compromises of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. INVESTIGATE examined the "Great Compromise" that created the national legislature with a Senate and a House of Representatives. UNCOVER explored the visions of equality and justice in Thomas Jefferson's Draft Constitution (1776) and Thurgood Marshall’s Bicentennial Speech (1987). ENGAGE asked whether the "Three-Fifths Compromise" made the Constitution a pro-slavery document.
