Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Finkelman on the Proslavery Constitution and the Civil War

Paul Finkelman, Albany Law School, has posted How the Proslavery Constitution Led to the Civil War, forthcoming in the Rutgers Law Journal 43 (2013):405.  Here is the abstract:    
This article explores the proslavery nature of the US Constitution and the ways in which that Constitution set the country on the road to the Civil War. The article points out that under the Constitution it was impossible to end slavery. Even to this day, in 2013, it would be impossible to amend the Constitution if all 15 of the slave states (or now former slave states) opposed the amendment. This article was first presented a symposium on the Constitution and the Civil War at Rutgers Camden Law School.