A Compromise For Power

A Compromise For Power

A Compromise for Power
It was said to have been the spark that started the Northern and Southern conflict in colonial America. Found in Article one section 2 paragraph three of the United States constitution, this compromise took a specific group of people and counted them as only three fifths of a whole person. This was known as the three fifths compromise and was decided on in 1787 at the constitutional convention. The idea of counting enslaved persons as three fifths of a whole would not be considered unacceptable until after the civil war with the ratification of the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments. The three fifths compromise was allowed to be acceptable and considered necessary for one reason only, and that is power.
Prior to the civil war, slavery was one of the most unchallenged institutions in America. There was no talk of civil rights or freedom among all men. Slaves were a big part of American economy. The south used the slaves for labor on their many plantations and farms. The north, although not as dependent on them, sold the slaves to the southerners as well as the rest of the world. It seemed as though neither the north nor the south cared about slaves as much as they would once the revolutionary war was over.
In 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the war. The Americans now had the independence they worked so hard for. The only thing to do now was to create a country that could run like no other. The way to do this was through democracy. The Americans wanted to create a government for the people by the people where almost every person could have a say so in how the country was ran. The articles of confederation were created in order to achieve this goal. A total of thirteen articles were created and could only be amended by a percentage of congress. One issue involving slaves that sparked heated debates was taxation. The northerners wanted to count slaves as a whole person when applying tax to a state. The south on the other hand...