No major Articles were added or deleted. The individual property rights of the slave-owner was prioritized. No law could be passed about emancipation. Individuals could not free their own slaves. Immigration of slaves from other states could not be limited. Enslaved people continued to have the right to jury trials, punished as they would be against a White victim, “except in case of insurrection by such slave.”28 But to this was added: “or rape on a white female.”29 The nature of the changes make clear that the principle concern of the members of the secession Convention was to ensure the preservation of slavery.

836 1845 1861

Many of its features reappear in most, and in some cases all, of the constitutions to come. These included the due process rights common in the American states (for example, protection against unlawful search and seizure and the right to be tried by a jury of your peers), the separation of powers backed up with checks and balances, and a wide variety of elected positions with short terms and term limits.