On the record
The clause begins with the descriptive words, “No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof.” Now a slave is not a “person,” with the rights of persons, but a chattel or thing.
Source
gutenberg.orgCharles Sumner: “The clause begins with the descriptive words, “No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof.”…”
Editor's note · Context
He argues that the legal definition of a slave fails to recognize their status as property rather than persons.
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Women’s National League, petition of, for universal emancipation, X. 300.
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Early testimony of the Church against, I. 59.
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