Posted on 05/04/2021 7:16:47 PM PDT by Olog-hai
A Tennessee Republican falsely declared Tuesday that an 18th century policy designating a slave as three-fifths of a person was adopted for “the purpose of ending slavery,” commenting amid a debate over whether educators should be restricted while teaching about systematic racism in America.
During lengthy debate on the GOP-controlled House floor, several (b)lack lawmakers expressed concerns about the bill’s impact on how certain subjects would be taught in schools, specifically highlighting the Three-Fifths Compromise. The policy was made during the nation’s Constitutional Convention in 1787 and classified that three-fifths of a state’s slave population could be counted toward its total population when apportioning taxes and states’ representation in Congress.
Historians largely agree the compromise gave slaveholding states inordinate power over choosing a president — and decisions of the Continental Congress. That clout eventually faded when Northern state populations began to rapidly rise.
Rep. Justin Lafferty, who is white, stood up and talked at length about what he saw as sparking the compromise. At one point he asked colleagues to note on paper their best guess for the reasons that led to the policy.
“By limiting the number of population in the count, they specifically limited the number of representatives who would be available in the slave holding states and they did it for the purpose of ending slavery,” said Lafferty, from Knoxville. “Well before Abraham Lincoln. Well before Civil War.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
I think you’re either being intentionally obtuse or you’re a closet lefty. Of course the slaves didn’t accept their bondage and of course they weren’t consulted about the decision to continue to allow slavery. I’m not intending to excuse slavery, just providing an explanation for why it was allowed to continue to exist. The FOUNDERS were the ones who decided not to try to end slavery in the late 18th century. Most of them believed slavery was morally wrong, but allowed it to continue as a necessary evil. They indeed thought that economic forces at work (namely massive immigration and industrialization) that had essentially killed slavery in the North would likewise eventually do so in the South. Massive demand for cotton as a result of industrialization of the textile industry combined with the invention of the cotton gin, allowing the crop to be easily processed by unskilllabor, thwarted that vision.
Obviously this led to the entrenchment of slavery in the South, with all of the rationalizations that Southerners put forth in its defense — the Bible sanctions slavery, the slaves are better taken care of and better off than poor immigrant factory workers in the North, etc. It’s pretty easy to rationalize a system when ending that system would completely uproot your society and plunge nearly everyone into poverty.
Be careful of judging people on the basis of your own morality. It isn’t all that far fetched that future generations will look back upon us and judge us harshly. Yes, slavery was wrong, but it certainly wasn’t an American invention. Slavery has been the norm throughout most of human history. It still is the norm in some parts of the world.
Actually it’s really even more cynical than that. All taxes paid to the Federal government had to come from each state in proportion to that state’s population. Northern states wanted slaves to be counted fully for the purpose of taxation but not at all for apportionment of members of the House. Southern states obviously wanted the opposite. Hence the compromise- 3/5 of slave population counted for both purposes.
Yes.
The 3/5 was to deprive the slave states of Congressional seats based on populations in those states that had no representation - the slaves. If they could have gotten away with it, the fraction should have been less than 3/5.
And yes in time, due in part to the 3/5 rule, anti-slave legislation continued to advance in the U.S. Congress.
And yes, the difference in Congress was only IN PART to the 3/5 rule. The population difference alone was significant:
“According to the census of 1860 the population of the United States numbered 31,443,321 persons. Approximately 23,000,000 of them were in the twenty-two northern states and 9,000,000 in the eleven states that later seceded. Of the latter total, 3,500,000 were slaves.”
The Bible does not sanction chattel slavery, and makes a big point about the freeing of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.
Not saying it does, but Southerners certainly used various Biblical passages to argue in favor of slavery.
Fair enough.
Just like how Satan twisted Scripture to try to tempt Jesus to go so far as to worship him.
I saw this when you initially posted it a month ago, but I keep thinking about it.
I've been reluctant myself to bring it up on numerous occasions over the years because I don't believe most people know this.
On the surface, this piece of information seems quite innocuous. "so they didn't want to break with England, so what? That's meaningless!" However this is quite harmful to the 1619 project ideology because of all that it portends.
I'm not grasping how it harms the 1619 project. A lot of people argue that the colonies would have given up slavery a lot sooner if the Crown had allowed them to do it, but that's about the only angle I can see for this harming the 1619 project, and even that isn't a clear example of harm to the 1619 project.
Apart from that, the 1619 project simply does not care what is true or false. They will just regurgitate the same spew that they wish people to believe, and it doesn't matter if it's actually true or not.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.