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To: NorthMountain; All

The facts you have stated are correct. I believe you are wrong in saying my “statement is NOT correct. At that time we had “free” persons who were citizens, Indians not taxed, and other free persons who were not citizens. So far as I know the only legal slaves we had were the ones that were considered as 3/5ths. Were there other slaves I don’t know about that were not counted as 3/5ths?


51 posted on 06/25/2015 1:31:51 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: gleeaikin
You wrote in #13:

" listed slaves as 3/5ths of a human. I am not sure what they did about free Negroes."

I am making a subtle semantic point, but one which I think is important. Please bear with me ...

1) What they did with free Negroes, at the time of framing the Constitution, was to count them as free persons. Each of them added "1" to their respective state census numbers.

2) Which brings us to the dreaded 3/5 and the often overlooked ZERO. The question was not whether enslaved negroes (or "Indians not Taxed") were human beings, much less what fraction of a human being they were. The question was of citizenship. Everyone agreed that the Indians weren't citizens, and would not be counted in the census. That DOESN'T mean they considered the Indians not human beings. The "Slave States" wanted to consider their slaves as citizens (for the purpose of the census), in order to boost their representation in Congress. The Non-Slave States wanted to consider slaves as NOT citizens), so as to reduce the Slave States' representation in Congress. Again, the question was of citizenship, not humanity. Slaves were considered 3/5 of a citizen: more than an Indian (and more than the Free States wanted), but less than a free man (and less than the Slave States wanted).

53 posted on 06/25/2015 1:57:29 PM PDT by NorthMountain ("The time has come", the Walrus said, "to talk of many things")
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