The Unconstitutionality of Slavery

'The Unconstitutionality of Slavery' is a groundbreaking book by American abolitionist Lysander Spooner, who argued that slavery was prohibited by the United States Constitution. In contrast to William Lloyd Garrison, who advocated opposing the constitution on the grounds that it supported slavery, Spooner argued that the Constitution actually contained several clauses that were contradictory to the practice of slavery. In the pamphlet, Spooner showed that none of the state governments of the slave states specifically authorized slavery, that slavery was a violation of natural law, and that the intentions of the Constitutional Convention had no legal bearing on the document they created. Thus, Spooner's position employed original meaning-styled textualism and rejected original intent-styled originalism. This influential work was instrumental in the abolitionist movement and the eventual eradication of slavery in the United States.