In the 1700’s, the Northern and Southern regions of the United States had developed two distinct economies. In the South, large plantations and farms owned by wealthy men growing cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, and indigo were responsible for the majority of the economy. These plantations and farms used slaves to substitute for the necessary labor as it was a much cheaper and more accessible alternative. Trade and business were predominantly conducted overseas with Great Britain and other European nations. Towards the North, however, people thrived off of a more diverse and industrial economy; some also worked as farmers, but more were merchants, bankers, and laborers who manufactured goods. With a larger working body, the North’s economy …show more content…
The Framers came to an agreement by combining both sides of both arguments. In segments of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, it is written that Congress has the power “to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises” and “to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” In addition, Article I, Section 9 also 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 one thousand eight hundred and eight.” Congress was given the power to regulate interstate as well as foreign trade and commerce as the North had proposed. They were also able to deal with other aspects of economics including being the only branch of government able to introduce and enforce taxes. With these new compromises written into the Constitution, the North also had to assent to the ideas of slavery from the South. Most notably, the three-fifths clause in Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution determined slaves to be valued as three-fifths of any free person. This helped to settle the dispute on representation because the Southern states had higher populations, mainly due to the presence of slaves, which would account for more representation in Congress. To reach a consensus, all those enslaved were considered to only be three-fifths of a free person. Finally, in Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution, the fugitive slave clause was created declaring that all slaves who escaped would be rightfully returned to their owners. If a slave escaped from the South to the North, the Northerners would by law have to return the slaves to their homes. This compromise, along with many of the others, was created to gain the support of southern states such as North and South Carolina and
This became known as the 3/5 rule, which would allow southern states to increase representatives within congress. The more slaves that were held within the south; the more representation the southern states would get within congress. This method wasn’t to stop slavery, but to maintain slavery.
The three-fifths compromise reached between delegates from northern and southern states during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It consisted on that slaves should be counted when determining the state population, for legislative representation and taxing purposes. The compromise was proposed by James Wilson and Roger Sherman.
But then the issue of slaves arose, should they be counted, so to solve this problem they came up with the ⅗ Compromise which counted each slave as three-fifths a person in regard to
To unite the elements of the New Jersey and Virginia Plans, Roger Sherman brought forth the Connecticut Compromise. This agreement re-structured the legislative branch of government, in which the upper house consisted of two delegates per states and the lower house was based on the population of the states. Consequently, the Compromise included the three-fifths clause, which stated that population would 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.” By partially valuing slaves in both representation and taxation, the clause aimed to placate both the North and the South. The logic behind this solution was promulgated by James Madison’s when he said, “we must deny the fact that slaves are considered merely as property, and in no respect whatever as persons.
One of the very important items of the Compromise of 1850 was the provision for a stronger Fugitive Slave Law. With the Fugitive Slave Law, it made was federal crime to not return a runaway slave to the south. With this law any suspected runaway slave was to be tried by a single judge, but not by a jury. The judge was compensated by a system that would provide them with more money if they decide that the slave was guilty and not innocent. Obviously this law encouraged people not to harbor runaway slaves, but when the slaves were caught it provide the judge an incentive to have them returned to the south.
The Northern states, smaller in comparison to the south, already did not have as much representation and political power as the southern states. Therefore, the compromise to them was unnecessary, and they felt they would have all the power and dominate in the polls and decisions. Considering the different views the two already had based on slavery, this alarmed the northern states. However, as time passed, the Three-Fifths Compromise would not provide the advantage the slave owning south had hoped. The Northern states grew more rapidly in terms of population and ended up being opposing political power to others.
Later on the north was not pleased with the fugitive slave act because they felt as though they were helping promote slavery by returning runaway slaves. This would later lead to the “Personal Liberty Laws.” The North did not want the act, the people felt bad for having to send the slaves back to
The most important law created for the territories was the abolition of slavery. While fugitive slave laws existed, the banning of holding slaves in these territories helped balance the power to the Union during the Civil War. Southern states originally supported the banning of slavery, as they did not want to have to compete with the Northwest in commodity crops such as
However, that only further benefited Slave states. Slavery was disputed again when Northern states wanted the government to have complete power over trade with the other nations. Southern states depended heavily on trade and feared that the North would get enough votes to interfere with their slave and agricultural
One of the compromises made in the Constitutional Convention is the three-fifths compromise. In this compromise, the southerners wanted to add slaves to the population of the state they lived in. If slaves were included in their state’s population, that state would be able to add more representatives in the House of Representatives. Northerners did not agree with that statement because slaves did not have the right to vote. After the delegates compromised, they agreed that only three-fifths of the slave’s population would be counted into the state’s population.
The Missouri Compromise greatly limited the growth and development of slavery in the United States. It allowed Missouri to become a state, and to allow slaves, and Maine, as a free state. The compromise also prohibited the practice of slavery in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory. By this time, the importation of slaves from Africa had been outlawed, and they could only be purchased within the country. This meant also meant, that states that entered would be free states.
Eventually, the delegates compromised on the slavery issue as well. Slaves were declared to count as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of population counts. However, neither the word slavery nor slave was used in the Constitution. Rather, it refers to the Three-Fifths Compromise as applying to “all other persons. ”Still, it was apparent whom the Three-Fifths Compromise targeted, since it went a step further and addressed the issue of the African slave trade.
Slavery had led to a division in the United States. Northerners expressed the abolishment of slavery while the Southerners were in favor of it. During the 1850’s, the United States became polarized due to slavery sentiments on both sides and Congress passed Fugitive Slave Laws. Congress passed the fugitive slave laws in 1793 and 1850 to return slaves who had escaped from a slave state into a free state or territory. The ideology of the fugitive slave law was borrowed from the Fugitive Slave Clause in the United States Constitution (Article IV, Section 2, Paragraph 3).
Many Federalists and Anti-Federalists began to debate whether the Constitution was good or bad. When it came to representation, there were also differences of opinion in the various regions about whether slaves should count towards the state’s population. The people in the south wanted this so they would have more representatives and therefore more power in Congress. The Northern states did not like this idea and wanted the number of slaves to only determine taxes, not representation. After a lot of debate, the delegates voted on the Three-Fifths Compromise, which would allow three-fifths of a state’s slave population to be counted for representation.
The profits originating from slavery in America, and new industries that were created to transport goods imported from plantations changed the