Clause 3. No person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.
PRIMARY DOCUMENT
Fugitive Slave Clause, The Constitution of the United States (1787–1992)
CONTEXT
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.
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