The Unconstitutionality of Slavery
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The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (1845) was a book by American
slave states specifically authorized slavery, that the U.S. Constitution contains several clauses that are inconsistent with slavery, that slavery was a violation of natural law, and that the intentions of the Constitutional Convention have no legal bearing on the document they created. Thus, Spooner's position is one that employs original meaning-styled textualism and rejects original intent-styled originalism
.
On May 23, 1851, in Change of Opinion Announced, Frederick Douglass attributed his shift in opinion away from Garrison's view that the Constitution was pro-slavery "to Lysander Spooner, Gerrit Smith, and William Goodell. Of all these sources, Spooner likely had the strongest influence on Douglass's method...."[3]
See also
- Abolitionist publications
- Slavery and the United States Constitution
- The Constitution of the United States: is it pro-slavery or anti-slavery?
References
- ^ Spooner, Lysander, The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (1860)
- ^ Brown, Susan (1978-03-01). "The Unconstitutionality of Slavery; Review of Lysander Spooner's Essay on the Unconstitutionality of Slavery". Reason.com. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ Rebeiro, Bradley. "Frederick Douglass and the Original Originalists". Brigham Young University Law Review, vol. 48 (2023), 923
External links
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