Slave Trade Clause
E176632
The Slave Trade Clause is a provision in the U.S. Constitution that temporarily protected the transatlantic importation of enslaved people by preventing Congress from banning it before 1808.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Slave Trade Clause canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1538741 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Slave Trade Clause Context triple: [Commerce Compromise, hasPart, Slave Trade Clause]
-
A.
Fugitive Slave Clause
The Fugitive Slave Clause was a provision in the U.S. Constitution that required escaped enslaved people who fled to free states to be returned to their enslavers.
-
B.
United States Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves 1807
The United States Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 was a federal law that banned the transatlantic importation of enslaved people into the United States, marking a major legal step against the Atlantic slave trade.
-
C.
Slave Trade Act 1807
The Slave Trade Act 1807 was a landmark British law that made the transatlantic slave trade illegal throughout the British Empire, marking a major victory for the abolitionist movement.
-
D.
Slave Trade Act 1824
The Slave Trade Act 1824 was a British law that strengthened and expanded earlier legislation against the transatlantic slave trade by increasing penalties and enforcement measures to suppress it more effectively.
-
E.
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was a controversial U.S. federal law that strengthened requirements for the capture and return of escaped enslaved people and penalized officials and citizens who aided their escape, intensifying sectional tensions before the Civil War.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Slave Trade Clause Target entity description: The Slave Trade Clause is a provision in the U.S. Constitution that temporarily protected the transatlantic importation of enslaved people by preventing Congress from banning it before 1808.
-
A.
Fugitive Slave Clause
The Fugitive Slave Clause was a provision in the U.S. Constitution that required escaped enslaved people who fled to free states to be returned to their enslavers.
-
B.
United States Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves 1807
The United States Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 was a federal law that banned the transatlantic importation of enslaved people into the United States, marking a major legal step against the Atlantic slave trade.
-
C.
Slave Trade Act 1807
The Slave Trade Act 1807 was a landmark British law that made the transatlantic slave trade illegal throughout the British Empire, marking a major victory for the abolitionist movement.
-
D.
Slave Trade Act 1824
The Slave Trade Act 1824 was a British law that strengthened and expanded earlier legislation against the transatlantic slave trade by increasing penalties and enforcement measures to suppress it more effectively.
-
E.
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was a controversial U.S. federal law that strengthened requirements for the capture and return of escaped enslaved people and penalized officials and citizens who aided their escape, intensifying sectional tensions before the Civil War.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
clause of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
compromise over slavery ⓘ constitutional provision ⓘ |
| afterExpiration | allowed Congress to prohibit the importation of enslaved people ⓘ |
| allows | Congress to impose a tax or duty on imported persons not exceeding ten dollars for each person ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
importation of enslaved people into the United States
ⓘ
transatlantic slave trade ⓘ |
| category |
Clauses of Article I of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
Slavery-related provisions in the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| dateRatified | 1788 ⓘ |
| doesNotApplyTo | states that might be formed after the Constitution was adopted ⓘ |
| draftedBy |
Committee of Detail
ⓘ
surface form:
Committee of Detail of the Constitutional Convention
|
| effectiveFrom | 1789 ⓘ |
| expirationDate | January 1, 1808 ⓘ |
| geographicScope | United States and its states existing in 1787 ⓘ |
| governs | federal regulation of the international slave trade prior to 1808 ⓘ |
| historicalEffect |
contributed to the growth of slavery in the United States before 1808
ⓘ
extended legal protection for the transatlantic slave trade until 1808 ⓘ |
| influenced |
United States Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves 1807
ⓘ
surface form:
Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807
|
| interpretedBy | constitutional scholars of slavery and the founding era ⓘ |
| isAlsoKnownAs |
Importation of Persons Clause
ⓘ
Migration or Importation Clause ⓘ |
| isContainedIn | Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| isPartOf |
Article I of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
United States Constitution ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States government
ⓘ
surface form:
federal government of the United States
|
| language | English ⓘ |
| legalForm | constitutional text ⓘ |
| legalStatusAfter13thAmendment | effectively superseded by the abolition of slavery ⓘ |
| limitsPowerOf | United States Congress ⓘ |
| locatedInDocument |
Article I Section 9 Clause 1 of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
surface form:
Article I, Section 9, Clause 1
|
| mentions | "States now existing" ⓘ |
| moralCriticism | has been criticized as entrenching slavery in the founding document ⓘ |
| negotiatedAt |
Constitutional Convention
ⓘ
surface form:
Constitutional Convention of 1787
|
| permits | continuation of the transatlantic slave trade until 1808 ⓘ |
| primaryBeneficiaries |
Southern plantation interests
ⓘ
slaveholding states ⓘ |
| prohibits | congressional ban on the importation of enslaved people before 1808 ⓘ |
| purpose |
to delay federal interference with the international slave trade
ⓘ
to secure Southern support for ratification of the Constitution ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Commerce Clause
ⓘ
Fugitive Slave Clause ⓘ Three-Fifths Compromise ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
international trade in enslaved people
ⓘ
slavery ⓘ |
| temporalLimit | before the year 1808 ⓘ |
| textBeginsWith | "The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit" ⓘ |
| wasCompromiseBetween | Northern states and Southern states at the Constitutional Convention ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Slave Trade Clause Description of subject: The Slave Trade Clause is a provision in the U.S. Constitution that temporarily protected the transatlantic importation of enslaved people by preventing Congress from banning it before 1808.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.