Agree. The die was cast with the 3/5 compromise in Philadelphia in 1787.
That, I suppose, was the best they could do then to get the agreement of all 13 states, but it was only done as a compromise to keep the two smallest and arguably weakest of those thirteen in the union, and was just the beginning of "fourscore" of compromise over our founding principles that finally reached a breaking point in 1860.
One can only wonder what would have / could have, been if the other 11 had simply told those two states to go their own way back in 1787.
That would be the alternative history to write. Would they have survived on their own? Would they have relented? Would they have gone back to the British? What would of those two have done and how would the nation have been different today?
Interesting points for conjecture.
Indeed. The price would probably not have been that high and the savings in blood enormous.