Puncturing the slavery myth, Constitutionally, Slavery Is No National Institution.

"THE Civil War began over a simple question: Did the Constitution of the United States recognize slavery — property in humans — in national law? Southern slaveholders, inspired by Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, charged that it did and that the Constitution was proslavery; Northern Republicans, led by Abraham Lincoln, and joined by abolitionists including Frederick Douglass, resolutely denied it. After Lincoln’s election to the presidency, 11 Southern states seceded to protect what the South Carolina secessionists called their constitutional “right of property in slaves.”

http://ift.tt/1LJXOBs

NYT Op-Ed By SEAN WILENTZ SEPT. 16, 2015

http://ift.tt/1L2iKZV

"Well worth reading – a good antidote to this myth that not only unfairly impugns the constitutional framers, but (more importantly) does serious damage to our sense of who and what we are as a nation." David G. Post at Volokh Conspiracy

http://ift.tt/1YjOcH8

Puncturing the slavery myth, Constitutionally, Slavery Is No National Institution.