How did the constitution contribute to the beginning of the Civil War?
The North saw no need for slavery because its economy was oriented around manufacturing and industrialization. The South relied very heavily on slavery because its economy relied on agriculture. The Constitution never endorsed slavery, it merely acknowledged that slavery existed. Section 2 of Article I states that apart from free persons “all other persons,” meaning slaves, are each to be counted as three-fifths of a white person for the purpose of apportioning congressional representatives on the basis of population. Section 9 of Article I states that the importation of “such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit,” meaning slaves, would be permitted until 1808. And Section 2 of Article IV directs that persons “held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another,” meaning fugitive slaves, were to be returned to their owners. The Bill of Rights, adopted in 1791, says nothing about slavery. But the Fifth Amendment guarante
