Slavery: At the Constitutional Convention, the delegates were concerned with the survival of the young nation. Many delegates called for strong protections for slavery, while many others hated the idea of putting into the Constitution the idea that there could be property in people. With the goal of forming a Union, they reached a compromise. Slave states would count 3/5ths of their slave populations towards their state populations to calculate taxation and representation in Congress. This is known as the 3/5 Compromise. Additionally, Congress could not outlaw the international slave trade until 1808. The debate over the federal government's power to regulate slavery continued through the Civil War. James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, and Andrew Johnson, who served as President of the United States in the years immediately before, during, and after the Civil War, each had different approaches to the constitutional powers of the President, if any, to interfere with the spread of slavery. At the end of the Civil War, the Reconstruction Amendments, the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, and 15th Amendment, were added to the US Constitution. The three amendments abolished slavery, granted citizenship regardless of race, and allowed Black men the right to vote.

How can we talk about founding principles of liberty and equality without accounting for slavery? To explore this question, Mary went to George Washington’s Mount Vernon just outside of Washington, DC, and spoke with Director of Interpretation, Jeremy Ray. What does the design of the Greenhouse Slave Quarters reveal about the two sides of the plantation: the ornamental, public-facing greenhouse side and the functional, behind-the-scenes side where the people held in bondage lived? How can visiting historical places like Mount Vernon help us grapple with our complex story?

What were Thomas Jefferson’s complex views and actions on slavery as statesman and slaveholder? In this episode of Scholar Talks, Cara Rogers Steven, Associate Professor of History at Ashland University, joins BRI Senior Fellow Tony Williams to discuss her first book, Thomas Jefferson and the Fight Against Slavery, published by the University Press of Kansas in the esteemed American Political Thought Series. This episode delves into Thomas Jefferson's education, his early anti-slavery writings, the complexities in Notes on the State of Virginia, his educational influence on republican government, and his actions as a statesman and slaveholder.