Slavery and the Constitutional Convention .
One aspect of life that was so commonly overlooked in the 1700's was the issue of slavery. Through it played such an important role in civilization, it is unfortunate how much they were neglected in our society; even in our constitution. Slavery was never properly dealt with for a number of reasons. So why did our founding fathers choose not to deal with such an important facet in the United States. Desperate Times call for desperate measures. .
During the formation of the Constitution, there was the urgency to have it ratified as soon as possible. This was ground to make lots of compromises that due to the lack of time was inevitable. A struggle took place between the northern and southern delegates ,occasioned by the issue of slavery. It had to do with the interests of the regions. Slavery was discussed in the Convention but it was coming up with an agreement that was going to take time. Time the Convention didn't have. At this time, the slave population was tremendous. The slave population has a immense part of the south's population and grew concerns when it came to the Constitution. The northern delegates contended that slaves should be counted in deciding each state's share of the direct federal taxes. Southerners were not in agreement what so ever. However the Southerners did want to include slaves in some aspects. They wished to include slaves in the count for the district representative in the House of Representatives, although they wouldn't consider letting them vote. In the end, The Three-fifths Compromise was agreed upon . It stated "three-fifths of all persons" would be counted for both purposes. The Compromise was a triumph for the Southerners .
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because direct taxes were only seldom levied by Congress before the Civil War. As for the issue of slave trade, that was postponed by a clause making it illegal for Congress to ban the African slave trade before 1808.