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AP®︎/College US Government and Politics
Course: AP®︎/College US Government and Politics > Unit 1
Lesson 5: Ratification of the US Constitution- The Constitutional Convention
- Constitutional compromises: The Electoral College
- Constitutional compromises: The Three-Fifths Compromise
- The impact of constitutional compromises on us today
- The Constitution of the United States
- Article V and the amendment process
- Article V of the Constitution
- Article VI of the Constitution
- Article VII of the Constitution
- Ratification of the US Constitution: lesson overview
- Ratification of the US Constitution
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Constitutional compromises: The Three-Fifths Compromise
The Constitutional Convention made key compromises over slavery. Delegates, divided on the issue, agreed to phase out the international slave trade by 1808, but allowed domestic trade to continue. The Three-Fifths Compromise gave southern states more representation, counting each enslaved person as three-fifths of a person for population counts. These decisions had lasting impacts, leading to the Civil War.
Want to join the conversation?
- Though I cannot reference a specific timestamp, I do recall you stating that those two excerpts from Article I of the Constitution as part of the "original copy" of the Constitution. Does that mean the Constitution of today is not the same one as they used back in the early days of US history?(3 votes)
- From the author:The reason I make a distinction is that the Constitution has been amended! So in the "original" Constitution, for example, senators were appointed by state legislatures rather than elected by popular vote. (This is in Article I, which established how representation in Congress would work.) That changed with the Seventeenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1913.
I wouldn't want learners to come away thinking that everything the Framers adopted at the time the Constitution was ratified in 1791 is still how things work today!(14 votes)
- were the any "other peoples" besides black slaves(4 votes)
- There we also Asian slaves and Native American slaves but less of them(3 votes)
- i have been reading about the 3/5 compromise. What are some of the tragedies of the compromise? How does it effect us today(3 votes)
- Good question! In actuality, the 3/5ths Compromise is no longer in effect today because most, if not all, minorities, including blacks, native Americans, and other groups had been given the right to vote. One outcome, obviously enough at the time, of this compromise was that southern states gained more representation in the House. This, of course, made some of the northern states a bit frustrated, and while there were no direct consequences at the time, violence and other events did come out of this compromise as a result, and the racism that initiated this compromise can still be seen today. Hope this helps!(2 votes)
- If a slave state had an amount of enslaved individuals that was not divisible by five, would the United States Census round this amount up or down? Or would the U.S. Census simply just use regular rounding rules?(1 vote)
- what are some of the tragedies of the 3/5 compromise that affect us today(1 vote)
- There are no tragedies of the 3/5 Compromise affecting us today. Today, most people believe all people, either white or color, are full, 100% Americans and are allowed to vote.
Hope that helps!(1 vote)
- how long did the 3/5's compromise last?(1 vote)
- The 3/5 Compromise lasted until the end of the Civil War. It was actually the 14th amendment in 1868 that explicitly abolished the 3/5th clause, and established that citizens would have the same weight when being counted for taxation and representation based on population purposes.(1 vote)
- what is the framers view on pluralist democracy(1 vote)
- How did they come to the 3/5 compromise? And why would they come to the 3/5 compromise when they were attempting to outlaw slavery? It seems like they took a step back from their goal to appeal to slave owning states and countries.(1 vote)
- it was the only way to get the south to ratify the constitution(1 vote)
- At, did they mean 1861 when the Civil War broke out instead of 1865? 6:55(0 votes)
- Was "for every 5 enslaved people three of them would be counted" statement in article 1?(1 vote)
- Yes. In Article 1, section 2, the Constitution has a clause where it talks about who gets seats in the house of representatives. Here it says that a state's weight in the House is determined by its number of free people plus three-fifths of "other persons".
You can read the full text here: https://constitutionus.com/(0 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] In the last video, we discussed one of the compromises made at the Constitutional Convention, the compromise of the electoral college. In this video, I want to discuss a different compromise. The compromise over slavery. Now, you'll remember
that one of the issues that the electoral college
was trying to solve was the idea that perhaps the revolution and the concept of
democracy had gone too far in the United States and needed to be reined
in by the more elite class of American citizens who would be better able to
make political decisions. But the flip side of this was whether the revolution had perhaps not gone far enough. In that, it didn't abolish
the institution of slavery. Now, the delegates at the
Constitutional Convention had sharply divided opinions over slavery. Those who came from southern states tended to be elite white men, who were themselves slave owners their own fortunes deeply tied into the institution of slavery. In the aftermath of the revolution, many northern states began to either outlaw or phase out slavery, recognizing that it was incompatible with the system of government defined around the concept that
all men are created equal. But if they were going to replace the articles of confederation, they were going to have
to find a way forward. And I would say overall, the
slaveowners got their way more than not. Now, one anti-slavery
aspect of the constitution was that it outlawed the
international slave trade, starting in 1808. So, here in article one, it states that the
migration or importation of such persons as any of
the states now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the congress prior to the year 1808, but a tax or duty may be
imposed on such importation not exceeding ten dollars for each person. So they say, we'll give the
international slave trade 20 years and then we'll get rid of it. And indeed, on January 1st, 1808, the international slave trade was outlawed in the United States. So, this middle passage
in which enslaved Africans were taken from west Africa and brought across the Atlantic, the end would never be
in the United States. But this doesn't mean that
they outlawed slavery, and it doesn't mean that they outlawed the domestic slave trade, the trade in slaves between
states or within states. In fact, up until about 1850, one of the largest slave
markets in the United States was just around the corner
from the White House and the US Capitol. So, imagine walking on the
streets of Washington DC and seeing these buildings where democratic ideals are enshrined and then going around the corner and seeing women and
children and men being sold and families being torn apart. It's a very powerful image. But, although the framers did agree to phase out the
international slave trade, they made another compromise that was much more
favorable to slaveholders. The Three-Fifths Compromise. Now, you'll remember that in deciding how the legislative branch
would represent the population, in the Great Compromise,
or Connecticut Compromise, they agreed that in the
House of Representatives, the proportion of representatives would be based on population, whereas in the Senate, every state would have two senators regardless of its size. Well, the big question for this is who counts as part of the population? Is it just white men? Or do the large enslaved populations of southern states also count? Now, if you were a southern slave holder, you would have been strongly in favor of counting this population, because it means you
get more representation, and thus more power in the
House of Representatives. If you were against slavery or from a small state, or both, you would've been bitterly
opposed to the notion that people who have no rights as citizens should be counted as
citizens to give those states more power in Congress. So, here's what they decided, according to article one. 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. This three fifths of all other persons really means enslaved Africans. And you'll notice that the framers are really talking around slavery. In the part about the
international slave trade, they said migration of such persons. Now they say three fifths
of all other persons. In fact, the word slavery never appears in the original constitution. So, why do they say three
fifths of all other persons or migration of such
persons as states think it proper to admit? And honestly, I think the answer to this is that the framers
were ashamed of slavery. They were ashamed that this institution existed in a democratic society. They knew that the eyes of the world, the eyes of history, would
look at this document and this institution completely sullied the idea
of a democratic government. So, as it says here, their agreement was that for
every five enslaved people who lived in a state, three of them would be counted for the purposes of population. This is a huge victory for slaveholders, getting more power in Congress for having people who can't vote, who can't be citizens. Why did the delegates of other states allow this to happen? And I think the simple answer is that the constitution would
not have been ratified were it not for this
compromise, among others. The states of the south were too important to getting that nine out
of 13 necessary votes to replace the articles of confederation with this new constitution. So, they made a compromise to make sure that the constitution was
ratified and improved. But that compromise would
have tremendous consequences for the generations of enslaved people who would live under that system. And for the nation when the
Civil War broke out in 1865.