Flawed Constitution

Essay by ieshareneeHigh School, 11th gradeA, November 2014

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Iesha Magallanes

A.P. U.S. History

Mr. Ronald C. Woolsey

Period 4

9/23/14

The Flawed U.S. Constitution

The United States Constitution was a political layout that was built on top of a bias and unjust foundation that cast the rights of African Americans and the rights of the individual states into the shadows. The Constitution was flawed and did not contain a correct mechanism for the people to enforce it. The purpose of this powerful document was to unify the American people and protect their natural born rights. In reality, the Constitution was very limiting and hypocritical. This false sense of equality and individual rights was clearly seen in the Constitution's role in the affairs of African Americans and of the states.

The writers of the Constitution were hypocritical on the views of a deserved equality because they did not abide by what they stood for and preached. Thomas Jefferson wrote that "all men were created equal", yet he was a man who owned slaves.

(See Document B) When the Constitution was first drafted, the issue of slavery was taken lightly and not given any significant importance. The Founding Fathers were more concerned with getting the southern states to join the Union and sign under the newly established Constitution, than rid of slavery as whole. By doing this, African Americans lost most of their well-deserved rights and liberties. They became commodities to the white man. In Article I, Section. 2, the southern states were allowed to count all of their slaves as 3/5 persons. In Article IV, Section. 2, free states were not allowed to protect runaway slaves. Lastly, in Article V, no constitutional amendment could ban slavery until 1808, which would allow another 20 years of legal slavery among the states. Even if certain slaves gained their freedom, they were...