5. Topic: The Constitution and Slavery. Thesis: Even as the framers toiled over the new Constitution many thought that the days were numbers for slavery in the south. The revolution had ended the bounties on crops such as indigo and changes world markets had reduced the profits from rice and tobacco, and no crop had replaced them. But this too would change. Following the introduction of a new technology, the cotton gin, an old uneconomic crop would give new life to an otherwise moribund institution.