It also explicitly prohibits slavery, although the regulation does not apply to slaves already living there and does not prevent some slaveholders from bringing slaves to the indiana and illinois territories. The Constitution was adopted on 17 September 1787. Article I of the Constitution stipulates that both the number of members of the House of Representatives of each state and the amount of direct taxes depend on the number of citizens in each state. Members of the military are included in the census. Given that slavery is legal and habitual, at least in the South, and that the subject is very strongly a dividing line between the authors, the authors agree that slaves are not considered full citizens. Known as the three-fifths compromise, Article I, Section 2, each slave counts as three-fifths of a person for the representation of the state. This provision was adopted after the civil war with the adoption of the 13th, 14th and 15th. A constitutional amendment that abolished slavery, guaranteed all citizens equal protection against state acts and created the right to vote. President Abraham Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation and declared that all human beings held as slaves in states that had separated from the Union were free. The proclamation omitted areas under Union control, including parts of Louisiana, a few counties in Virginia, and all of Tennessee.

The validity of this proclamation, issued under the president`s war powers, is questioned and will lead two years later to the proposal of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.