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The relevant portion of the Article specified that "Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States" by adding free Persons to three fifths of "all other Persons" (meaning slaves). The immediate effect of compromise increased the seats of the Southern states from 38% in the Continental Congress to 45% in the first U.S. Congress; it also helped to elect slave-owning presidents in 12 of the first 16 presidential elections.
Importation of Slaves: Another dispute on slavery arose during the drafting of the Constitution. While a majority of states were opposed to further import of slaves, three states -- Georgia, North and South Carolina, threatened to leave the Union if such a ban was placed. As a result, Section 9 Article I was incorporated in the Constitution, allowing the import of new slaves into the U.S. until 1808. Extending the slave trade past 1800 brought many more slaves to America with South Carolina alone importing about 40,000 slaves between 1803 and 1808, when import of slaves was finally banned. However, they chose to compromise on the issue while drafting the Constitution in order to preserve the Union.
Fugitive Slaves Clause: One other provision in the Constitution (Section 2 of Article IV) was introduced as a result of a compromise on slavery. It obligated the Northern, no-slave states to return the escaped or "fugitive slaves" to their owners. In exchange for the fugitive slave clause, the New England states got concessions on shipping and trade. Since the clause allowed escaped slaves to be chased into the North and caught, it also resulted in the illegal kidnapping and return to slavery of thousands of free blacks. (Horton, 2007). The clause was repealed by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment which abolished slavery in 1865
Conclusion
The background and analysis of the clauses referring to slavery in the U.S. Constitution indicate that they were put in reluctantly. Most of the
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References
Boyd, S.L. (1995). "A Look Into the Constitutional Understanding of Slavery." Ashbrook Center. Retrieved on December 12, 2007 at http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/respub/v6n1/boyd.html
The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription." (n.d.) the National Archives Experience. Retrieved on December 12, 2007 at http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution_transcript.html
The Constitution and Slavery: Ratification Debate on the U.S. Constitution." (n.d.) Constitutional Rights Foundation. Retrieved on December 12, 2007 at http://www.crf-usa.org/lessons/slavery_const.htm
Horton, J.O. (2007). "Race and the American Constitution: A Struggle towards National Ideals." History Now. September 2007. Retrieved on December 12, 2007 at http://www.historynow.org/09_2007/historian3.html
Founding Fathers: How the Founding Fathers of America would respond to the success or the shortcomings of America's progress in keeping with their principles America was a nation founded upon the principles of freedom but also upon compromises. One of the most notable compromises was the negotiation between free and slave states in the framing of the U.S. Constitution. The three-fifths compromise was an attempt by the Founding Fathers to determine
founding fathers and their fear of "dangerous leveling" in the society. It will furthermore explain the problem of equalization of the society and would thus lead to the reduced inequalities of wealth, income, talents and virtues. The paper will highlight the issues as discussed in the book The Irony of Democracy" by Thomas R. Dye and Harmon Zeigler. United States of America got its independence on 4 July 1777. The first
However, when the issue of taxation without representation became a general rule in the British Parliament, the Americans viewed it as a breach in their freedoms and power of decision. Therefore, this dilution of liberal rights also led to the desire for independence and separation from the British Empire. From this point-of-view, the three politicians are seen as the promoters of these freedoms. Washington, as the first acting U.S.
Slavery in the New World Characters who are always in need of discrediting the United State and to oppose its role as pre-eminent and most powerful force for goodness, human dignity and freedom focus on bloody past of America as a slave holding nation. Apart from mistreatment and displacing native Americans, they enslaved millions of Africans, which is one of the worst mistake which has ever happens in the history of
7). Du Bois also points out that the so-called "slave codes" like the Black Codes of the Reconstruction period after the Civil War were written to enforce the notion that slaves "were not considered as men. They had no right to petition. They were devisable like any other chattel. They could own nothing. They could not legally marry, nor could they control their children. They could be imprisoned by their
Slavery in America -- Three Compromises, All Compromised Wrong -- the Three-Fifths Compromise, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and the Compromise of 1850 "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were created equal" -- except for Black American men, of course, who are only 3/5ths equal, according to the Constitution of the United States. The ringing words about equality, penned by Jefferson, a guilty-minded slaveholder sound far less