Kanye West on history: what the evidence says · JRE #1554

What the evidence says 01 / RECORD

The three-fifths clause, adopted at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, resulted from a dispute between southern and northern delegates over how enslaved people would be counted for representation and taxation. Southern delegates, including Pierce Butler of South Carolina, argued enslaved people should be counted equally with free persons to boost southern representation, while other delegates wanted enslaved people excluded from the count entirely since it would inflate southern political power without extending any rights to enslaved people. On July 12, 1787, Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut proposed basing representation on free persons plus three-fifths of "all other persons," a formula both sides ultimately accepted as a negotiated middle ground. Historical records show the three-fifths ratio was a mutual compromise between southern delegates (who wanted full counting) and northern delegates (who wanted no counting), not something created unilaterally by northern delegates as an anti-slavery measure. The claim that it was "created by the anti slaves in the north" omits that southern delegates initiated and pushed for full counting, and that the three-fifths figure represented a concession from both sides rather than a northern proposal imposed on the South.