The Truth About The Three-Fifths Compromise

The Three-fifths compromise, in which African slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person by the US census, as used as proof by leftist anti-American revisionist historians to “show” that America was a racist nation and to portray the founding fathers as white oppressors. However, as this article will show, it is a misleading technique used by the anti-American revisionist historians, who distorted America’s history to make their own nation look bad, which is the same thing Israel’s New Historians do. Like the New Historians, who distort Israel’s history to portray Israel in as a bad light, the anti-American revisionist historians seek to do the same thing to America.

When you take a look, you’ll find that it was abolitionists who opposed counting slaves and the proponents of slavery who wanted to count them. The Founding Fathers wanted to get rid of slavery as fast as possible and fought against it. Though the Founding Fathers did own slaves, as they fought to establish America, they grew more and more opposed to it. For example, George Washington did own slaves himself. Yet, as he helped found and shape America, he also used his influence to fight against slavery. After his death, his slaves fortunately became free. the Founding Fathers did not want to count the slave population because, not only would it legitimize slavery, it would encourage. it. Counting slaves would’ve rewarded the south for this horrible evil and would’ve gave them encouragement to continue it. It would’ve given the south a disproportionate amount of power and it would’ve owned slavery. That’s why the Founders opposed counting the slave population. That’s why abolitionists and the north was opposed to it. That’s why the south supported it. That’s why proponents of slavery supported it.

So at the Philadelphia convention on 1787, there was a compromise to only count three fifths of the African slave population. Of course, it is dehumanizing to say that they’re three fifths of a human being. At the same time, to count them among the free inhabitants would’ve encouraged slavery and perhaps even could’ve gotten the north to adopt this evil practice to be on par with the south. The three fifths decision was declared moot after the emancipation proclamation act, in which African slaves were fortunately freed once and for all. I think we all agree that the right thing to do was to free the slaves, not count them as three fifths of a human being. That’s exactly what Abraham Lincoln fought a war to do.

This article is not saying that the three fifths compromise was the right decision. Though it is showing the proper context of it and also showing it from the view of the north, the founding fathers and abolitionists. It still did give less power to the south and did not encourage slavery as much as counting slaves among the population for the US census would’ve done.