Such individuals were not slaves and were citizens of this country despite their condition or the servitude to those they were legally bound to for the sake of meeting a contract they had entered into freely or paying off a debt they owed to a creditor.
But let's look at the whole quote: 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.
I can think of one Founding Father that would have been personally effected by this part of the constitution because he had been a runaway apprentice and legally bound to a "Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due" before the Constitution was written, if we are to define that clause as the very basis of proof that The Constitution legalized slavery then by those words Benjamin Franklin was a slave for most of his adult life.
Yeah I'm stretching the logic a bit, but by precisely the same amount required to convert a "Person held to Service or Labour" into slave by the logic of southern democrats.
Those laws were written back in the time of Greco-Roman law. Our laws have their roots in Greco-Roman law, and English law (prior to the emancipation of slaves in England mind you) thereby slavery at the inception of this Country WAS legal. The slaves were created by their own countrymen who sold them off for gold. This is back during the time of inter-tribal warfare, and despot Kings. The white Europeans saw a viable market and burgeoning gold mine to fill their own pockets. You first have to understand that many of the laws about slavery were State written and at the time of the ratification of the US Constitution, the States were independent, sovereign States as recognized by King George in the Treaty of Paris 1783. Even when they ratified the Constitution, the States still maintained a greater proportion of self-governance power than they ceeded to the Federal Government. There are several books out on the subject. But to try and simplify the War of Northern Aggression by saying it was just about freeing the slaves is pure horsesh*t. All that serves to do is to make you believe the North had the high moral ground. Dig deeper, find the truth! I did, and I was educated in the public school system! Once you find out the truth then you can see how what exists in Washington DC is faaaaaaaaaaaar from what the Founding Fathers' envisioned for this nation.
You stated earlier something about putting away the Confederate Uniforms and talking about guns. Well boyo, that same government that suppressed the South's bid for independence, is the same government whose politicians want to erode your Civil Liberties from time to time. Remember Bill Clinton and how gun control became a national hue and cry? Luckily there were enough freedom loving Americans to step up to the plate and shoot down their attempts. But they haven't stopped, they are just laying low for now. I believe that it was the 2nd Amendment to the Bill of Rights they went after that time, now its the 1st Amendment. PC, and liberals are the bane of freedom, and those who follow the Liberals' warped ideology are fools and "Useful Idiots". And it all started back in 1865 with the defeat of the South.