On the Antebellum Abolitionist Stance Towards the United States Constitution: An Evaluation Regarding the Approaches of the American Anti-Slavery Society, William L. Garrison, and Frederick Douglass

Abstract

This study examines the strategic and theoretical approaches developed by the antebellum abolitionist movement toward the United States Constitution. At the core of the study lies the legal tension between the commodity status of slavery in material life and the personhood status of it—allegedly left ambiguous by the Constitution to the benefit of slavery—as embodied in the tracts of the American Anti-Slavery Society. In this context, the fundamental rift that divided the movement is analyzed through William L. Garrison’s rejection of the Constitution as a covenant made with slaveholders and Frederick Douglass’s reformist constitutionalism, which reinterpreted the text as an anti-slavery founding document. The comparison reveals that, in contrast to the Garrisonian faction’s “No Union with Slaveholders” approach which rejected both the Constitution and the Union, Douglass developed a legal originalism that distinguished the Constitution from its administration and interpreted the constitutional text in favor of liberty. After examining how the pre-Civil War abolitionist constitutional debate was shaped by the rejection of the Constitution on one hand and a reformist approach that utilized the Union's constitutional possibilities to abolish slavery on the other, the study briefly evaluates the outcome of this process in terms of public law and human rights.

Keywords

• Abolitionism
• U.S. Constitution
• Frederick Douglass
• William L. Garrison
• Constitutional Interpretation

Supporting Institution

This study was substantially written at The New School for Social Research (New York) with the support of TÜBİTAK’s 2219 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program Abroad, and completed in Türkiye.

İÇ SAVAŞ ÖNCESİ KÖLELİK KARŞITI HAREKETİN AMERİKAN ANAYASASINA BAKIŞI ÜZERİNE: AMERİKAN KÖLELİK KARŞITI TOPLULUĞU, WILLIAM L. GARRISON VE FREDERICK DOUGLASS’IN YAKLAŞIMLARI BAKIMINDAN BİR DEĞERLENDİRME

Abstract

Bu çalışma, Amerikan İç Savaşı öncesinde kölelik karşıtı (abolisyonist) hareketin Amerika Birleşik Devletleri Anayasasına yönelik geliştirdiği farklı stratejik ve teorik yaklaşımları incelemektedir. Çalışmanın merkezinde, Amerikan Kölelik Karşıtı Topluluğu’nun risalelerinde somutlaşan; köleliğin maddi yaşamdaki meta statüsü ile Anayasanın kölecilik lehine belirsiz bıraktığı iddia edilen kişi statüsü arasındaki hukuksal gerilim yer almaktadır. Bu bağlamda, hareket içindeki temel kırılma, William Lloyd Garrison’un Anayasayı köle sahipleriyle yapılmış bir anlaşma olarak niteleyen reddiyesi ile Frederick Douglass’ın metni kölelik karşıtı kurucu bir belge olarak yeniden yorumlayan reformist anayasacılığı üzerinden analiz edilmektedir. Yapılan karşılaştırma sonucunda, Garrisoncu kanadın Anayasayı ve Birliği reddeden “köle sahipleriyle Birliğe hayır” yaklaşımına karşılık Douglass'ın, Anayasayı uygulamasından ayıran ve Anayasa metnini özgürlük lehine yorumlayan bir hukuki orijinalizm geliştirdiği saptanmaktadır. Çalışma, İç Savaş öncesi kölelik karşıtı hareketin Anayasa tartışmasının, Anayasanın radikal bir reddiyesi ile Birliğin anayasal imkanlarını köleliği tasfiye etmek için kullanan reformcu bir yaklaşım etrafında nasıl şekillendiğini inceledikten sonra, bu sürecin kamu hukuku ve insan hakları bakımından sonucunu kısaca değerlendirmektedir.

Keywords

• Kölelik Karşıtlığı
• Amerikan Anayasası
• Frederick Douglass
• William L. Garrison
• Anayasal Yorum

Supporting Institution

Bu çalışmanın önemli bir bölümü TUBİTAK’ın 2219-Yurt Dışı Doktora Sonrası Araştırma Burs Programı desteğiyle The New School for Social Research (New York) kurumunda kaleme alınmış, çalışma Türkiye’de tamamlanmıştır.

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