Inside: The words “slave”, or “slavery” are found nowhere in the original text of the Constitution.  People are consistently referred to as “persons”.

Not too long ago, I stumbled across a joke that I found really funny, and it demonstrated to me I still have a weakness for Dad jokes, even those that tend to be a little too dark.  It went like this… 

“I once told someone I have a half-brother”,

“Really, a different mother, or a different father?”

“Neither…  it was a shark attack” 

Ok, I probably found that one funnier than I really should have!  It is one of those jokes that I share with the family and I get that “look” from RaShell…  😊   Jokes about partial people should probably be off limits!

Reduced to Partial People?

But in all seriousness, one of the allegations we often hear about our Constitution, is that in its original form, Article 1, Section 2 reduced certain people – specifically slaves – to a status of “partial” people.  What we are talking about here is the part of the original Constitution that is referred to as the “Three-Fifths Compromise”.  This portion of the original text read, “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.”  Let’s look into this subject a little more to understand it better. 

As we discussed in our article, The Voice of We the People, the Constitution created a “bicameral” Congress, which simply means it has two “houses”, the House of Representatives, and the Senate.  The idea was to deal with the fact that there were competing interests among the 13 independent entities (now called states) that formed the Constitution.  The argument of the larger ones was that they should receive more representation in Congress because they had larger population.  The argument of the smaller ones was that they were all equal and therefore they should have equal representation.  The compromise was to have two “houses” – both of which must participate in the creation of laws.  In the House of Representatives, larger states would have more Representatives and therefore more voice.  In the Senate, all states would be equally represented.  Our founders were masters of compromise and accounting for competing interests. 

Determining Population

The natural next question, then, is “how do we determine population?”  This becomes a very important question because it determines how many Representatives a given state has in the House.  The Constitution stated that the number of Representatives in the House would not exceed 1 for 30 thousand population.  So, using that ratio, if a state had a population of 150,000 in the latest census, for example, then they would get 5 Representatives – or at least no more than 5 Representatives – in the House.  This worked until, in 1929, the ever-growing number of Representatives was limited to the current number at the time, which was 435, and we still carry that number of Representatives today.  The number of Representatives per state is reallocated every 10 years after the census to reflect the changing population data.   

Counting Slaves

As you could imagine, the question quickly came up about slaves…  how would the population of slaves be counted?  If a state had a large number of slaves, and counted them in its population, that would boost its number of Representatives in Congress and give them more of a voice in the government.  If a state has a larger population, consider some of the ways that would impact their voice across the government:

• Higher population would mean the state would receive more Representatives in the House
• Higher population would mean the state would get more electoral college votes for the Presidential election
• Since the Supreme Court Justices are appointed by the President, then more of a voice in the Presidential election translates also into more of a voice into the Supreme Court
• Higher population would therefore strengthen a state’s voice in every part of the government

Penalizing Slave States

For this reason, understand that counting only a portion of the slave population toward representation in Congress – instead of a full 100% number – was a penalty to slave states.  The slave states wanted the larger representation in Congress – they wanted the increased voice in the government.  Had the slave states been granted 100% of their slave population towards their representation in Congress, it would have increased the voice of the slave states in all parts of the government, and likely would have resulted in slavery being a bigger part of our history for a longer period of time.

Gouverneur Morris was the most active member of the Constitutional Convention – he spoke more than any other member.  Later, in 1812, when speaking in New York, he explained this idea very clearly.  He said:

“One important concession was made by the northern states with extreme reluctance because they deemed it unjust; and the haughtiness with which the southern states insisted on it was offensive.  Nothing, therefore, but a pressure of necessity would have induced them to submit to a regulation whose object and effect were to encrease the representation of those states, in proportion to the number of men whom they should hold in bondage: So that the violation of natural right was rewarded by political prerogative, and they became masters of their brethren, by making the negroes slaves.”    

-Gouveneur Morris, Address to the People of the State of New York in 1812

Gouverneur Morris (who represented Pennsylvania in the convention) understood this was not a question of the relative value of a slave or any other person.  This was a question of “political prerogative”, and he was disgusted that the southern states would receive a louder voice in the government based upon violating natural law and holding a large number of people in bondage.     

“Slave” not found in the Constitution

It is also significant that the words “slave”, or “slavery” are found nowhere in the original text of the Constitution.  People are consistently referred to as “persons”.  That is true whether it is referring to slaves in the Article 1, Section 2 portion we are looking at today, or whether it is talking about a person’s qualification to run for office, or someone holding a title of nobility, or anything else…  the original text of our Constitution referred to everyone as “Persons”. 

Our Constitution does not refer to slaves, or any other people, as less than a “person”.  Let’s keep that in mind and stick up for our founders and our Constitution the next time we hear someone say it does.  Let’s keep the whole idea of “partial people” limited only to (slightly inappropriate) shark jokes… 

For Information on Slavery in America, we recommend reading the WallBuilders article, The Bible, Slavery, and America’s Founders.