Constitution's Slave Trade Clause Protects Importation Until 1808

Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution prohibited Congress from banning the international slave trade before 1808, a direct concession to South Carolina and Georgia. Charles Pinckney and Pierce Butler of South Carolina threatened to walk out if the trade was restricted. In the 20-year window, an estimated 170,000 additional Africans were forcibly imported into the United States. South Carolina alone re-opened its trade in 1803 and imported roughly 40,000 Africans in five years. The clause was also evidence that the Constitution was explicitly constructed to protect slavery.