Thank you Douglas. And thank you to everyone else responding to my 3/5th
question. I have a hold on the situation now.

Diana Bennett

Douglas Deal wrote:
>
> Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3:
>
> "Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several
> States which may be included within this Union, according to their
> respective Numbers, which shall 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.
> The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first
> Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent
> Term of ten years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct."
>
> The best collections of original source materials on the meaning of (and
> debates over) this clause are to be found in Philip B. Kurland and Ralph
> Lerner, eds., The Founders' Constitution (1987), vol.2, pp.86-144; and
> John P. Kaminski, ed., A Necessary Evil? Slavery and the Debate over the
> Constitution (1995), pp.18-23, 43-54, passim (see index).
>
> The "whole Number of free Persons"--as determined by the federal census
> takers--has always included groups ineligible to vote. In that sense, the
> voting "clout" of many different states has been artificially inflated or
> deflated by their having above- or below-average numbers of non-voters of
> various kinds in the total population (children, women, new immigrants, et
> al.). Slaves are unusual in being the only group included *partially* in
> the total basis for representation/taxation. All others were included
> (100%), save for "Indians not taxed," who were excluded (0%).
>
> Douglas Deal
> Professor of History and Director of General Education
> State University of New York at Oswego
> Oswego, NY 13126
> [log in to unmask]
> (315)-312-5631 (voice mail)
> (315)-312-3577 (FAX)
>
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