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To: Teacher317; All

For those who don’t know the American Constitution listed slaves as 3/5ths of a human. I am not sure what they did about free Negroes.


13 posted on 06/24/2015 11:35:06 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: gleeaikin

Those who don’t understand the 3/5ths compromise would probably be best advised not to bring it up...

Just saying.


24 posted on 06/25/2015 4:00:22 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: gleeaikin

And before you get all offended let me point out that the abolitionists wanted slaves to count as NOT HUMAN. 0%.


27 posted on 06/25/2015 4:05:57 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: gleeaikin
Free people regardless of race counted as full people.
The 3/5 Compromise was a stroke against slavery, not a slight against blacks.

Slave owners wanted slaves to count as full people to boost their power in Congress. Those who opposed slavery argued that slaves should not be counted in determining the number of congressional representatives a state would have.

45 posted on 06/25/2015 6:44:22 AM PDT by Ditto
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To: gleeaikin
You wrote:

e American Constitution listed slaves as 3/5ths of a human.

Article I, Section 2, Paragraph 3:
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, 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.

Your statement is not correct. The Constitution apportioned representation according to citizenship. Delegates from thhe states in which slaveholding was widespread wanted to count slaves as citizens, and apportion representatives in Congress according to their number. Delegates from the states in which slaveholding was not widspread wanted to restrict citizenship to "free" persons and apportion representatives according to this smaller census. It was, in reality, a power struggle over numbers of representatives in Congress. "Three Fifths" was a compromise, nothing more. Note that "Indians not taxed" were not considered citizens, and were not counted at all for the purpose of congressional representation.

48 posted on 06/25/2015 8:31:51 AM PDT by NorthMountain ("The time has come", the Walrus said, "to talk of many things")
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