3/5 Compromise

Washington's Birthday (Observed) came early this year. It's not "President's Day" officially. The day overlaps with a day of history post about when Jefferson was chosen president. 

The thread led to a discussion of the 3/5 Compromise which helped Jefferson win in 1800. A comment argued that people are wrongly taught that the compromise dehumanized slaves. The argument is that slave states wanted slaves counted like free people for purposes of representation while free states wanted them to be counted not at all. So, it was a net plus.

The overall idea came from a pre-constitutional proposal involving allotting taxes. The South cried foul since they saw slaves as property & thought it unfair that only their property was being taxed. 

Also, slaves were considered to be less economically productive. Economic production was one factor in allotting taxes. 

A compromise was achieved to count slaves by 3/5, which was later used in the Constitution. The two sides had different concerns this time. 

The South wanted slaves to be fully counted while the North wouldn't mind if they were not counted at all. So, both sides got something and gave up something.

The idea that the 3/5 Compromise diminishes the personhood of slaves is not totally off base. The compromise partially arises from slaves being considered both persons and property.

See, e.g., Federalist 54: "The federal Constitution, therefore, decides with great propriety on the case of our slaves, when it views them in the mixed character of persons and of property."

A full understanding recognizes that slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person for specific purposes (representation and direct taxes). They were in all ways labeled "persons." If slaves were not counted at all, arguably it would be easy to consider them non-persons. Given the context, realistically it is hard to see how slavery could have been better covered. 

Slaveholders kept on talking about their constitutional interest in slave property. The Constitution, as Lincoln reminded them at Cooper Union, always calls slaves "persons." By then, that had some real teeth. 

The humanity of slaves is explicitly stated. Their status as property was (intentionally) hidden by circumlocations. The Confederate Constitution was blunter, repeatedly using the terms "slave" and "slavery." They knew the original was "flawed." 

==

Bonus: A good summary of the history of LGBTQ+ discrimination in the military. Check out the "memo" link at the bottom, especially the last paragraph.