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Pros And Cons Of Anti-Slavery Constitution

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When talking about the constitution in today’s world I don’t think anyone would disagree about the constitution being an anti-slavery document. The 13th amendment abolishes slavery and any form of service that isn’t voluntary. But at the time of the writing of the constitution I think there would be a strong argument for why the constitution was a pro-slavery document. The north and the south had different views on slavery, but they also agreed on some things. When talking about the slaves they had a big role in the constitution. When talking about representation both the north and the south had views on what they wanted from slaves. The smaller states and slave states wanted slaves to be represented and counted in population. While the larger states and free states didn’t think that slaves should be counted as population because they were a form of property, but they wanted slaves to be counted so they could be taxed. The smaller states wanted equal representation and north wanted to be represented by population. With the argument they came to with the great compromise, which would please small states by …show more content…

Many argued that slaves were no more than property just as animals or land so they shouldn’t be considered as any form of population. Slaves states would argue that they would not join the union if the slaves weren’t considered part of population. With this they came to the agreement of the 3/5 compromise. This compromise allowed slaves to be counted in the population, so for every five slaves they were counted as three freemen. This would also allow taxation on slaves. This pleases slave states and allowed larger states to gain higher populations. So the north and the south would meet in the middle when deciding what slaves represented in the

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