This clause of the U.S. Constitution‘s Fourth Article gives enslavers the right to seize enslaved people who escaped to free states. The clause was adopted at the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
PRIMARY DOCUMENT
Author: Federal Convention
PRIMARY DOCUMENT
The Constitution of the United States (1787–1992)
From May 25 to September 17, 1787, the Federal Convention met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to draft the Constitution of the United States. The Bill of Rights, ten amendments that detail individuals’ rights and immunities against the central government, was presented to the First Congress of the United States and ratified on September 25, 1789. From 1795 to 1992, seventeen additional amendments were ratified, all of which appear below.
