摘要： 黑人奴隶制问题一直是美国历史上一个非常复杂的问题。内战前，联邦制原则和奴隶制问题纠合在一起，使这个问题越发复杂，在宪法法理学方面引发了很多争论。本文考察了1787年宪法中关于奴隶制的相关规定，指出宪法语言具有模糊性，最高法院法官的解释才能赋予这些法律条文真正的意义，最高法院的判例原则遂成为重要的法律原则。本文分析了内战之前的几个涉及奴隶制的重要案例，探讨这些案例形成的法律原则以及最高法院法官对联邦和州的不同态度。

关键词: 联邦制 , 奴隶制 , 最高法院 , 宪法解释

Abstract: Slavery was always a complicated issue in American history．Before the Civil War，it was even more complex when slavery and federalism tangled together and led to a lot of controversy in constitutionalism．The article studied the context of the Constitution of 1787 in which some articles were related with slavery．The constitution language could be obscure sometimes and the interpretation of the judges from the Supreme Court played the important roles．The article analyzed three cases which were connected with slavery before the Civil War and explored some law principles formed in these cases and the standpoint of the judges to federalism．The principles of these cases had effect on the cases which were related the federalism and race after the Civil War．

Key words: Federalism, Slavery, the Supreme Court, Constitution interpretation