The sources of The Unconstitutionality of Slavery

1. Constitution of the United States Framers of the United States Constitution 4 authority 4 citations · 15 passages

   ch. 4 2 passages anchored here · ch. 5 · ch. 8 · secondly. 3 passages anchored here · ch. 14 8 passages anchored here

   Explicitly named as source of the constitutional presumption of liberty and reassertion of natural-rights principle.

   Now, the constitution of the United States is but the charter of a corporation.

2. Declaration of Independence Continental Congress 2 authority · 1 endorsed 3 citations · 8 passages

   ch. 5 5 passages anchored here · secondly. · ch. 14 2 passages anchored here

   Directly named and treated as authoritative constitutional law throughout the passage.

   Admitting, for the sake of the argument, that prior to the revolution, slavery had a constitutional existence, (so far as it is possible that crime can have such an existence,) was it not abolished by the declaration of independence?

3. Articles of Confederation Continental Congress 1 authority · 1 neutral 2 citations · 3 passages

   secondly. 2 passages anchored here · ch. 10

   Explicitly invoked as precedent consistent with the author's preferred meaning of 'free'.

   If we adopt that meaning of the word “free,” which is consistent with freedom—that meaning which is consistent with natural right—the meaning given to it by the Articles of Confederation, by the then existing State constitutions, by the colonial charters, and by the English law ever since our ancestors enjoyed the name of freemen, all these difficulties, inconsistencies, contradictions and absurdi …

4. Commentaries on the Laws of England William Blackstone 2 authority 2 citations · 11 passages

   secondly. · ch. 14 10 passages anchored here

   Blackstone's work is invoked through his editor's commentary as supporting authority.

   “Those rights then which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are;

5. Constitution of South Carolina Convention of South Carolina 1 authority · 1 neutral 2 citations · 6 passages

   ch. 6 5 passages anchored here · ch. 13

   South Carolina's constitution and statutes receive the most extended close textual analysis in the window.

   In 1704 South Carolina passed an act entitled, “An act for making aliens free of this part of the Province.

6. History of the United States George Bancroft 2 refuted 2 citations · 7 passages

   ch. 14 7 passages anchored here

   Bancroft's history is directly named and its characterization of the statute is explicitly disputed.

   Bancroft asserts, that “the (slave) trade is highly beneficial and advantageous to the kingdom and the colonies;

7. Jacob's Law Dictionary Giles Jacob 2 authority 2 citations · 13 passages

   ch. 6 8 passages anchored here · ch. 14 5 passages anchored here

   Jacob's Law Dictionary is directly quoted at length for definitions of 'freeman'.

   The foregoing and other illustrations of the use of the words “free” and “freemen,” may be found in Jacob’s Law Dictionary, under the head of Freeman, London, &c.

8. Ogden vs. Saunders (12 Wheaton, 332) Chief Justice John Marshall 2 authority 2 citations

   secondly. · ch. 14

   Named and cited directly by case citation and quoted judicial reasoning.

   Saunders, (12 Wheaton, 332,) Chief Justice Marshall said, that in construing the constitution, “the intention of the instrument must prevail;

9. Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States The People of the United States 1 authority · 1 neutral 2 citations · 3 passages

   secondly. 3 passages anchored here

   The amendment is quoted verbatim and used to illustrate a general interpretive principle.

   The second amendment to the constitution declares that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

10. Somerset's case Lord Mansfield 2 authority 2 citations · 5 passages

    ch. 3 4 passages anchored here · ch. 4

    The 1772 King's Bench decision is repeatedly cited and relied upon as authoritative precedent.

    It was decided by the Court of King’s Bench in England—Lord Mansfield being Chief Justice—before our revolution, and while the English Charters were the fundamental law of the colonies—that the principles of English liberty were so plainly incompatible with slavery, that even if a slaveholder, from another part of the world, brought his slave into England—though only for a temporary purpose, and w …

11. colonial charters the English Crown 2 authority 2 citations · 3 passages

    ch. 3 2 passages anchored here · secondly.

    The charters are quoted in substance and cited as binding fundamental law of the colonies.

    )—The general provisions of those charters, as will be seen from the extracts given in the note, were, that the laws of the colonies should “not be repugnant or contrary, but, as nearly as circumstances would allow, conformable to the laws, statutes and rights of our kingdom of England.

12. William Shakespeare 1 extended 1 citation

    ch. 10

    A recognizable literary line is invoked within the argument to illustrate concealment of intent.

    “Thou canst not say I did it.”

Each stands at a single passage. The chapter carries the anchors.

ch. 1 1 source

definition of law (as given in Webster's dictionary)

ch. 2 1 source

rule of strict construction in favor of natural right

ch. 3 4 sources

recognition of colonial charters and common law authority · statute of 1750 (23 George 2, ch. 31) · statute of 1788 respecting the slave trade · the common law of England

ch. 4 1 source

Statutes of North Carolina (Iredell, revised by Martin)

ch. 6 12 sources

American Dictionary · Charter of Rhode Island · Constitution of Connecticut (1818) · Constitution of Georgia · Constitution of Maryland · Constitution of New Jersey · Constitution of New York · Constitution of North Carolina · Constitution of Pennsylvania (1776) · Constitution of Virginia (1776) · Enactment concerning freemen (Province of Pennsylvania) · Magna Charta (1215)

ch. 7 2 sources

Articles of Confederation (1778) · The Federalist, No. 42

secondly. 27 sources

Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution (apportionment clause) · Article 1, Section 2 of the United States Constitution (apportionment clause) · Article 1, Section 9 of the United States Constitution (migration or importation clause) · Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution (fugitive service or labor clause) · Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States · Commerce Clause, Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution · Constitution of the United States (Guaranty Clause, Article IV, Section 4) · Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 2 (electors qualification clause) · Constitution of the United States, First Amendment · Contracts Clause of the Constitution of the United States · English common law tradition regarding the word 'free' · Genesis (Tower of Babel narrative) · Guaranty Clause of the Constitution of the United States · Habeas Corpus Clause of the Constitution of the United States · Militia Clauses of the Constitution of the United States · Patent and Copyright Clause of the Constitution of the United States · Post Office Clause of the Constitution of the United States · Preamble to the Constitution of the United States · Presidential eligibility clause of the Constitution of the United States · State constitutions of the United States · Supremacy Clause of the Constitution of the United States · Supreme Court decision on the scope of the commerce power · Treason and Trial by Jury Clauses of the Constitution of the United States · United States Constitution (domestic violence guaranty clause) · United States vs. Fisher et al., 2 Cranch, 390 · War Powers Clauses of the Constitution of the United States · opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States

ch. 10 1 source

Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention

ch. 13 3 sources

Constitution of Tennessee · Treaty of cession of Florida · Treaty of cession of Louisiana

ch. 14 30 sources

1667 Virginia baptism statute · 1712 South Carolina baptism act · 1740 South Carolina slave code · 1753 Virginia slavery statute · 23 George II, ch. 31 (An act for extending and improving the trade to Africa) · An Act to settle the Trade to Africa (9 and 10 Wm. 3, ch. 26) · An act for the better ordering and governing of negroes and slaves (1740) · Coke's Institutes (1 Inst. 183, 197) · Colonial charters of Virginia, Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, and Rhode Island · De Laudibus Legum Angliae · Debates in the Several State Conventions (Elliot's Debates) · Gibbons vs. Ogden, 9 Wheaton 1 · History of the American Revolution · Institutes · Jacob's Law Dictionary, title Law · Life of Patrick Henry · M'Culloch vs. Maryland, 4 Wheaton 403 · Madison Papers (notes of the constitutional convention) · Martin vs. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheaton 324 · Mitchell vs. Great Works Milling and Manufacturing Company, Story's Circuit Court Reports vol. 2, p.653 · Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity · Pawlet v. Clarke (9 Cranch's U.S. Reports 332-3) · Schooner Paulina's Cargo vs. United States, 7 Cranch 60 · Selden on Fortescue · Shepherd's Abridgment · Somerset v. Stewart · Somerset v. Stewart (Lofft's Reports 1-19) · United States v. Fisher (2 Cranch 390) · Whitney et al. vs. Emmett et al., 1 Baldwin, C.C.R. 316 · speech and writings affirming the law of nature and the Declaration of Independence