I'm surprised you managed to make it to Article IV without finding the citation which you seek. I'll quote Art. IV, §2: "No Person held to Service or Labour in

I'm surprised you managed to make it to Article IV without finding the citation which you seek. I'll quote Art. IV, §2: "No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due." This clause was made null and void by the Thirteenth Amendment that you've mentioned, which further makes me wonder... Anyways, the word "slavery" was deliberately not used by the Framers, as even at that time the concept was morally distasteful, so the Framers talked around the issue by referring to "Service" and "Party" instead of "slave" and "master". You also missed the part in the Constitution where importation of slaves could not be forbidden until 1808 (Art. I, §9).