Where's Lysander? Historians, the Constitution, and Slavery

Ralph Luker reports that a lively debate is underway at H-Shear and H-Slavery on whether the Constitution is pro-slavery. The participants, however, appear to have completely ignored the views of Lysander Spooner. By contrast, most readers of Liberty and Power are well aware of Spooner's sophisticated text-based argument that the Constitution was an antislavery document .

While the wording of the Constitution gives ample room for debate, this is less true of the much maligned Articles of Confederation. Even by Spooner's standards, that document gave far less federal protection to slavery. Unlike the Constitution, for example, the Articles did not have a fugitive slave clause.