War had been fought over issues of States' rights, including the right to control the institution of slavery. In this activity, you will compare and contrast the founding story of America's fight for liberty with the founding story of existence of slavery.And it nullified an earlier Supreme Court decision that held descendants of slaves could not be citizens. The United States Constitution. The U.S. Constitution did not explicitly mention slavery, slaves, or freed blacks in the original text. He is for the time being the slave of the state. Men, at that time, both in England and in America, looked upon the slave trade as the life of slavery. By 1890, however, white legislators restored white supremacy through segregation. The amendment prohibited former Confederate states from repaying war debts and compensating former slave owners for the emancipation of their enslaved people.