No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding, With a New Preface (The Nathan I. Huggins Lectures Book 18)

by Sean Wilentz

Elbridge Gerry, a delegate from Massachusetts, made the point directly, telling the convention that the Constitution should have “nothing to do with the conduct of the States as to Slaves, but ought to be careful not to give any sanction to it.”3