It stated that a slave who ran away
and reached a free state, did not thereby obtain his freedom.
Instead, that state was required, at the master's request, to seize
and return him.
In fact, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were
afraid that the revolutionary ideology of freedom and equality had
unwisely and unintentionally unleashed a social revolution. Southern
planters envisioned the end of slavery on which their wealth was
based. Northern capitalists were opposed to the liberal and
democratic land laws which the people were demanding. The economic
leaders in both sections of the country believed that there was a need
to protect property rights against these new revolutionary human
rights. While the Northern states strove to stabilize society in
order to build a flourishing commerce, the Southern states tightened
their control over their slaves fearing that insurrections from South
America or ideas about freedom and equality from the American
Revolution itself might inspire a serious slave rebellion.
Slave Insurrections
From the time that the first African was captured until the
completion of Emancipation, slaves struck out against the institution
in one way or another.
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