Butler, Pierce (1744-1822) [Wheresoever any person bound to service...]
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00819.17 Author/Creator: Butler, Pierce (1744-1822) Place Written: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Autograph document Date: 28 August 1787 Pagination: 1 p. ; 8 x 21 cm. Order a Copy
Draft. States that "the legislatures of the several states shall make provision for the recovering of such persons." No mention is made by name of slaves, apprentices or servants. Pencil note on back concerning a meeting at "Clifton at the Blue Bell Wharf." Date from Hutson. Not in Butler's hand.
The most controversial issues discussed at the Constitutional Convention involved slavery. Among the matters that Convention debated was whether states were obligated to return runaway slaves; whether slaves would count in apportioning representation or taxation; whether Congress had the power to abolish or regulate the slave trade from Africa or the West Indies or to regulate the interstate slave trade; and whether Congress had the right to prohibit slavery in the western territories. In the end, the northern delegates' commitment to union proved to be greater than any commitment to weaken slavery.
Pierce Butler of South Carolina proposed that states be required to return fugitive slaves. The provision was adopted without debate, in part because the northern delegates feared that fugitives might create an unemployment problem in the North.
Wheresoever any person bound to service or labour in any state, shall flee into another state, [struck: it shall be lawful for the person intitled [sic] to such service or labour to reclaim and recover him] he shall not be thereby discharged from such service or labour: but the legislatures of the several states shall make provision for the recovery of such person.
[2]
Kinsee -say Abraham
Abraham Kinsey
Markett Street on the
left hand near Sixth
Street -- Clifton at
the Blue Bell Wharf--
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