During the revolutionary period the founding fathers did several things that
effected slavery. These effects were stemmed from both the good and bad sides of
the issue. On the good side of the spectrum during the drafting of the Constitution
only a few of the founding fathers felt that slavery was necessary for the survival of
the colonies according to William Freehling. On the other side of this the founding
father Jefferson knew that free blacks and whites could live together and he himself
felt that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites. These racist thought made it
seem logical for the abolition of slavery to be a slower process a better idea even if
the not Christian like to enslave other people. The founding fathers wished to bring
the colonies together even though the issue of slavery was really causing a break in
the colonies. Even though the Constitution allow for the abolition of slavery . This
was not so until a specified time after the Constitution was drawn up and signed.
This time period allotted for more slaves and black descendants to suffer under he
rules of slavery. Even after the Constitution was ratified slavery still found a place
The Essay on Founding Fathers
In the past century, there has been a growing debate as to the motives of the founders of the republic and as a result the nature of our constitution. While Marxist analysts such as Charles Beard contended that the founders were wealthy elite that ultimately created a conservative document intended to weaken the poor popular majority, other scholars like John Roche believed that the fathers had no ...
and ways to grow. It wasn t until the Northwest Ordinance that slavery was finally
found illegal in upper western territories. This was until 3 years after Jefferson
drafted the congressional ordinance making slavery illegal.
After this point slavery became an issue with in the states and territories
themselves. For instance in Indiana part of the territory split off due its strong favor
of slavery. This action began to put the issue of statehood in jeopardy. After
statehood was secured a great supported of the antislavery movement became
governor of Indiana by a slim amount of votes and began the abolition of slavery in
that state.
With Constitution the one thing that the founding fathers were able to do was
to stop the slave trade. By doing this the founding fathers were able to hurt the
states that depended on slavery the most for their survival. This abolition of the
slave trade began in the Declaration of Independence. Even though this did not
directly stop slavery it did help southern states to begin to free their slaves. In
Virginia required free blacks to leave the state within a one year period. Even
though Jefferson attempted to do something about slavery he knew that it wasn t
enough and it was just fueling the fire for the civil war.
In looking at the facts the founding fathers clearly let their own prejudices get in
the way of them truly attempting to abolish slavery. Even Jefferson who had good
intentions at heart let his own beliefs about blacks stop him from freeing his own
slaves and the causing the freedom of slaves to be done by others after a twenty
year period. It is clear that in an attempted to help the country and abolish slavery
the founding father truly hurt the colonies and started what would soon become the
civil war.
