Slavery's constitution
Subtitle: from revolution to ratification
By: David Waldstreiche.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Hill and Wang
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 195
ISBN-13: 9780809094530
Subjects: Slavery -- Law and legislation -- United States -- History; Slavery -- Law and legislation -- England -- History; Slavery -- United States -- Legal status of slaves in free states; Constitutional history -- United States
Description: "All other persons: Who were they? They were not free men or women. They were not apprentices or indentured servants. They were not Indians who lived among whites and paid taxes, or those who did not. That left slaves. Three-fifths of the number of slaves in any state would count toward a state's number of congressmen, and three-fifths of them would have to pay when the Congress passed a direct tax. Africans and their descendants were not being defined as three-fifths of a person, as is sometimes said, for that would have implied that the men among them deserved three-fifths of a vote, when they had none, or had three-fifths of a person's rights before the law, when they had much less than that, usually. Rather, their presence was being acknowledged as a source of power and of wealth, for their owners"--Prologue: Meaningful silences, p. 4-5.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: The Mansfieldian moment; title: The great compromises of the Constitutional Convention; title: Protesting and ratifying slavery's constitution.