Many in the progressive world, believe that our founding fathers were racist. As their evidence they point to Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution:
“ 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.”
To the liberals, the 3/5th figure is an indication that our founding fathers were a bunch of racists who thought that the African Slaves were less than human.
The truth is that the founders from the northern colonies who opposed Slavery, insisted on counting the slaves as less than “full persons.” The reason for the insistence, is to prevent the slave states from getting too many congressman and electoral votes as to dominate the government and prevent Slavery from ever being abolished.
The Slave states wanted their slaves to be counted as a full person so they could dominate the House of Representatives and the Presidency. And the cool part of if for the southern whites is that they would have the benefit of counting the slaves, they would also be able to control the political power of their large numbers as the slaves were not allowed to vote.
The Northern States did not want them counted at all, to prevent the south from getting too powerful. The “three fifths of all other Persons” refers to the slave population as a whole, not to the humanity of each individual.
For those of you who took American History in high school, you might remember something called the Three-Fifths Compromise, originally proposed by Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and James Wilson of Pennsylvania. For those wing-nuts who did not take high school American History, let me suggest you borrow a book, or try Google.
Those who have read the Federalist papers would know the mindset of the founding fathers were not in favor of the continuation of Slavery, but were instead trying to wean their Southern brethren away from Slavery.
For example in Federalist #38 Madison justified the constitutional provision allowing slave trading for 20 years because it was an improvement,
Is the importation of slaves permitted by the new Constitution for twenty years? By the old, it is permitted forever.
In Federalist #42 he says
It were doubtless to be wished, that the power of prohibiting the importation of slaves had not been postponed until the year 1808, or rather that it had been suffered to have immediate operation. But it is not difficult to account, either for this restriction on the general government, or for the manner in which the whole clause is expressed. It ought to be considered as a great point gained in favor of humanity, that a period of twenty years may terminate forever, within these States, a traffic which has so long and so loudly upbraided the barbarism of modern policy; that within that period, it will receive a considerable discouragement from the federal government, and may be totally abolished, by a concurrence of the few States which continue the unnatural traffic, in the prohibitory example which has been given by so great a majority of the Union. Happy would it be for the unfortunate Africans, if an equal prospect lay before them of being redeemed from the oppressions of their European brethren! Attempts have been made to pervert this clause into an objection against the Constitution, by representing it on one side as a criminal toleration of an illicit practice, and on another as calculated to prevent voluntary and beneficial emigrations from Europe to America. I mention these misconstructions, not with a view to give them an answer, for they deserve none, but as specimens of the manner and spirit in which some have thought fit to conduct their opposition to the proposed government.
Ben Franklin, freed his slavesand was a key founder of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. Alexander Hamilton was opposed to slavery and, with John Jay and other anti-slavery advocates, helped to found the first African free school in New York City. Jay helped to found the New York Manumission (literally voluntary freeing of slaves) Society and, when he was governor of New York in 1798, signed into law the state statute ending slavery as of 1821.
When Constitution signerWilliam Livingstonheard of the New York society he, as Governor of New Jersey, wrote them, offering:
“I would most ardently wish to become a member of it [the society in New York] and… I can safely promise them that neither my tongue, nor my pen, nor purse shall be wanting to promote the abolition of what to me appears so inconsistent with humanity and Christianity… May the great and the equal Father of the human race, who has expressly declared His abhorrence of oppression, and that He is no respecter of persons, succeed a design so laudably calculated to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.”
Washington was a paradox, he was a slave owner hated slavery
“I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it [slavery].”-George Washington
Washington’s successor John Adams did not own slaves and hated the Practice:
“[M]y opinion against it [slavery] has always been known… [N]ever in my life did I own a slave.”-John Adams
Slavery will always be a horrible chapter in American History, but the three-fifths compromise was not.The three-fifths clause was not a measurement of human worth; it was an attempt to reduce the number of pro-slavery proponents in Congress. By including only three-fifths of the total numbers of slaves into the congressional calculations, Southern states were actually being denied additional pro-slavery representatives in Congress and electoral votes for selecting the president.
Now if we can only count progressives as three-fifths of a person for census purposes.
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Progressives are still using the same arguments as their pro-slavery
Brian Hibbert (Diary) Monday, July 19th at 1:07PM EST (link)for bearers in the Democrat party. Frederick Douglas had to argue the same points and used many of the same arguments to fight the Democrats as you are using here.
http://medicolegal.tripod.com/douglassuos.htm
Candidate for Trustee of Illinois Central College
Socialism doesn’t work. It looks nice on paper, but it’s been tried and it’s failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
Take back our party!
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they count on a lack of education
Doc Holliday (Diary) Tuesday, July 20th at 1:17AM EST (link)and since they control that too, it works every time.
Molon Labe!
Progressives should count for a negative number of persons...nt
mikerazar (Diary) Tuesday, July 20th at 12:08AM EST (link)We have a nation to save, people.
Way back in my American History class
littlehouse18 (Diary) Tuesday, July 20th at 12:22AM EST (link)I was taught the very lies you mention about this paragraph, and I believed them. Only in the last few years did I learn what really happened, Thanks for the great information!
A RedState University, Prof Dunetz
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Tuesday, July 20th at 6:37AM EST (link)Needs to be learned by every Tea Party in the country. We need to stop ducking this issue as to who the real rascists are in America.
A person
pamela1631 (Diary) Tuesday, July 20th at 7:19AM EST (link)Doesn’t need to be descended from Africans to have a slave ancestry.
Slavery has been going on for thousands of years all over this planet.
Those who decry slave holding of some of the Founders, why do they not decry the enslavement of people today. It is still happening.
Slavery. Serfdom. Bondage.
People of all colors are still being trafficked and enslaved right now.
And those who call the Founders racist and continue to wail their ancestry sit idly by and say nothing. Do nothing except rend ancient sack cloth and ashes long washed away by freedom.
Though another form of bondage was installed in the 60′s.
Here let us take care of you and provide shelter, money, medical care said the government. But there are rules. No fathers in the home. Can’t work a job and get the goodies.
Just vote for us to continue receiving.
So tell me what the difference is between then and now.
This republic was not established by cowards; and cowards will not preserve it. ~~Elmer Davis
I am stone forged from the fires of creation into flesh ~~Pamela1631
The greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced.~~Maj. L. Caudill, USMC (Ret.)
If transported back to 1787, today's Leftie would have two impacts on the couresof history:
6eorge Jetson (Diary) Thursday, July 22nd at 11:54PM EST (link)Jack and Squat
The first slaves were transported into America a few years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock as an immoral source of cheap labor. By the time of the Revolution, slavery had become embedded into plantations, not by the Founding Fathers (duh) but by plantation owners living under British/European rule.
Monday-morning quarterback Lefties take for granted the shaky bonds that the Founders managed to hold together. Lord knows if today’s Left were in charge, the fragile Union would have failed, and almost surely America would have reverted back to a ruling scheme lacking the obvious conflict between the conditition of slavery and the ideals of the rights of the individual embedded in the Constitution.
In regards to slavery, the Founders put America on a path to its elimination (albeit a slow path.) In those conditions, no one in today’s Left could have done any better. Indeed, had today’s Left been in charge, the United States would have soon disintegated, and with it, the long-run forces that brought about the end of slavery.
I'm late with this comment.
Flagstaff (Diary) Thursday, July 29th at 7:49PM EST (link)I was out of town. ON VACATION. I only backslid for a few comments one night.
Any way, it’s a great essay.
And about Barry’s historic presidency–
He’s not only the first black President of the United States, he’s the first black leader of ANY MAJOR NATION.
What does this mean, and why am I shouting? I’m shouting because nobody has apparently noticed that THIS RACIST, BACKWARDS, OPPRESSIVE NATION, THE UNITED STATES, HAS AGAIN LED THE WORLD BY ENTHUSIASTICALLY ELECTING A BLACK MAN PRESIDENT. I say “again,” because we’ve had blacks and other minorities in high positions of our government FOR YEARS. In the military since the 1960′s, at least. Massachusetts elected a black REPUBLICAN, Edward Brooke, to the Senate in 1966. (He was the last black elected to the Senate until Democrat Carol Moseley Braun was elected in 1993, perhaps because he was also the last REPUBLICAN elected to the Senate in Massachusetts until Scott Brown in 2009.)
Nevertheless, we have had blacks, women, black women, Gentiles, Jews, you name it, in many high government posts, including all of the above as Secretary of State (arguably the most important appointed position outside the Supreme Court) since 1969, most of them under Republican Presidents.
Can you tell me any major elected or appointed office held by any black in ANY OTHER FIRST WORLD COUNTRY since 1950?
Yet, we’re the backwards oppressive racists.
“The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”– Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
The Progressive argument is flawed from the start
anacreon (Diary) Friday, July 30th at 12:51AM EST (link)If I remember right from my Early American History class and from what I have read….
Most (if not all) northern states had already banned slavery outright by the signing of the Constitution. The changing northern economy (towards manufacturing and grain agriculture such as wheat and corn that did not require massive amounts of slaves) helped bring about the abolition of slavery and allowed many of our Founders the opportunity to put into law the very revulsion they had held to the institution of slavery.
The 3/5ths Compromise was just that, a compromise (to be explained further down). Progressives fail to point out that the “racist” Founders put a provision in Article 1 Sec. 9 that allowed Congress to ban the importation of slaves to the United States after 20 years of implementation of the Constitution – 1808. In fact, Congress did ban the importation of slaves in 1807 – while a “racist” Founder was President on top of that!
To Progressives, our history only starts after 1787. They ignore British history and the fact that our Founders still considered themselves British citizens until the Declaration. Progressives and the loony left on the US Supreme Court fail to understand the reasons limitations were placed on our federal government and why our rights were guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Article 1, Sec. 8 and 9 are specifically written with the abuses of King George III and his Parliament in mind because our Founders all had a shared history – British history.
Finally, our Founders understood the failures of the Articles of Confederation. Also lost on Progressives is the fact that our Founders were originally sent to Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confederation, not write a new contract – though just about everyone sent knew precisely what they were going to do when they got there. There are several provisions within Article 1, Sec. 8-10 that also seek to correct those failures of the Articles of Confederation. How is that related to everything above? Our Founders and the northern states knew that had to compromise with the southern states to get them to ratify the Constitution because the alternative – the Articles of Confederation – would ensure the absolute failure of a very young nation. So yes, slavery was allowed under the Constitution, but the reasoning behind allowing slavery was not racism as Progressives would have you believe.
Just so you know I’m not blowing smoke out my Joe Biden, here’s a few books that are great reads on early US History that the above posting was based on:
Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution by Woody Holton
The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America by Drew McCoy
Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North American by Ira Berlin
www.downstateiladvocate.com