05-26-2023, 02:01 PM
The ignorance about the 3/5th's compromise here is as sad as it is predictable.
https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/slavery/experience/legal/docs2.html
The exact text;
which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons
There is no mention of black people at all, in fact, a free black person was counted just the same a free person of any other ethnicity. Also, this was done to prevent the southern states from having an outsized political influence by increasing their populations of enslaved people. Is their racism inherent in the clause? Absolutely, especially in reference to the indigenous population. Were the vast majority of enslaved people black at the time of this writing? Also, yes. But to state the constitution only counted "black people" as 3/5th's of a person is a flat out falsehood and an insult to free black US citizens of the time and up to the end of slavery. I don't think people like Frederick Douglass would appreciate this falsehood.
https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/slavery/experience/legal/docs2.html
The exact text;
which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons
There is no mention of black people at all, in fact, a free black person was counted just the same a free person of any other ethnicity. Also, this was done to prevent the southern states from having an outsized political influence by increasing their populations of enslaved people. Is their racism inherent in the clause? Absolutely, especially in reference to the indigenous population. Were the vast majority of enslaved people black at the time of this writing? Also, yes. But to state the constitution only counted "black people" as 3/5th's of a person is a flat out falsehood and an insult to free black US citizens of the time and up to the end of slavery. I don't think people like Frederick Douglass would appreciate this falsehood.
