Critique the following constitutional provision protecting the property of slave owners. What would be an advantage of this policy?
"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."
A. Taxes are divided on an equal basis regardless of race, ensuing taxation is fair.
B. Identifying enslaved people as property ensures that Southern slave states remain part of the Union.
C. States retain the power to decide what taxes will be paid to the federal government, thus increasing state autonomy.
D. The national government assesses taxation on an equal basis, regardless of state population size.
B. Identifying enslaved people as property ensures that Southern slave states remain part of the Union.
The advantage of including the provision protecting the property of slave owners in the constitution can be argued to be option B. Identifying enslaved people as property ensures that Southern slave states remain part of the Union. This provision was added to appease the Southern slave states and ensure their support for the newly formed Union. By recognizing enslaved people as property and allowing their numbers to be factored into the apportionment of representatives and direct taxes, it gave slave states more representation and influence in the federal government. This helped maintain the balance of power between slave states and free states, and contributed to the preservation of the Union.
The given constitutional provision is known as the Three-Fifths Compromise, which was included in the United States Constitution in 1787. This provision determined how enslaved individuals would be counted when apportioning representatives and direct taxes among the states.
One potential advantage of this policy is option B: Identifying enslaved people as property ensures that Southern slave states remain part of the Union. At the time of the Constitutional Convention, there were stark differences between the Northern and Southern states regarding slavery. The Southern states, which relied heavily on enslaved labor, feared that they would be outnumbered politically by the Northern states where slavery was less prevalent. By counting enslaved individuals as three-fifths of a person, the Southern states were able to increase their population count for the purpose of representation in the House of Representatives. This compromise allowed the Southern states to have more representatives and thus maintain a level of influence in the federal government.
It is important to note that while this provision may have provided an advantage to the Southern states in terms of political power and representation, it was fundamentally flawed and morally wrong. Counting enslaved individuals as property dehumanized them and perpetuated the institution of slavery.