[Marxism] That much-misunderstood three-fifths compromise in the U.S. constitution

[Aaron Aarons]

>From: "Joaquin Bustelo" <jbustelo at gmail.com>
>Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:55:30 -0400
>Subject: Re: [Marxism] FINANCIAL TIMES: Correa asks Ecuadorians to take road
>	to constitutional shake-up
[SNIP]
>Not to mention the "indirect" election of the president which works just as effectively now to nullify the voting rights of Black people as the three-fifths compromise did in the original design.

The "three-fifths compromise" had nothing to do with nullifying the voting rights of Black people. Rather, it was a compromise over whether slaves were to be counted as persons for the purpose of allocating representatives in Congress among the states. The Southern slaveholders wanted to count slaves as full persons for that purpose, so that the slavocracy would have more representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. The states with few or no slaves, and opponents of slavery and the slaveowners generally, wanted to NOT count slaves as persons for that purpose.

So to make an argument against the constitution on the grounds that a slave was only considered three-fifths of a person is rather silly, since it was ultimately in the interest of the slaves to not be counted as persons at all in that context. It is the fact that the constitution countenanced slavery at all, and explicity allowed the continued importation of slaves for 20 more years, that is damning, not the mis-interpreted three-fifths rule.

 - Aaron