THE RATIO OF THREE-FIFTHS APPEARS IN 1783

Article by John Needham

April 1783. After seven years of bloody conflict, the war with Great Britain was coming to an end. The British surrender at Yorktown had occurred more than a year and a half ago and the Treaty of Paris loomed only four months away. In debt to the tune of forty-two million to foreign lenders, the Congress of the Confederation proposes an amendment to Article Eight of the Articles of Confederation to enhance its taxing power to fix the debt problem. In the proposed amendment, a ratio of three-fifths appears for the first time ever in American politics.

Under the proposed amendment, James Madison of Virginia suggested, State requisitions would be apportioned according to "the whole number of white and other free citizens and inhabitants, of every age, sex, and condition, including those bound to servitude for a term of years, and three-fifths of all other persons not comprehended in the foregoing description, except Indians, not paying taxes, in each state".

What is a state requisition? Taxes. Taxes were levied on the States by Congress for the purpose of progressing the war effort against Britain. Here is the exact language from Article Eight of the Articles of Confederation supporting my claim:

"All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defense or general welfare, and allowed by the United States in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several States in proportion to the value of all land within each State, granted or surveyed for any person, as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall be estimated according to such mode as the United States in Congress assembled, shall from time to time direct and appoint.

The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several States within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled."

The reason for counting three-fifths of slaves for the purposes of apportioning financial requisitions was that slave labor was considered less efficient than free labor because slaves had "no interest in their labor."

Was the ratio created specifically for perpetuating or protecting slavery? No.

There is no proof.  Why is the ratio of three-fifths important to bring up? Because the ratio is used in the creation of the Rule of Representation in the Constitution of 1787 in what would become known as the "Three-Fifths Clause".

For the purposes of population count and taxation, the Clause counted every FIVE slaves as Three freemen. The modern-day WOKE/Socialists take offense to the fact that slaves were underrepresented politically by our Founding Fathers and as a result, use the "Clause" to paint a picture of a nation founded in racism. A better question is, where did the Founding Fathers get the idea for the ratio? A subject for another time.

Mentioning the 1783 proposed amendment is important for another reason: Intent by the Legislature of the State of Virginia in amending the Articles of Confederation. Virginia, in its authorizing act of 1786 to send deputies to the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, refers to a report made by the Committee on General Revenue to the Congress of the Confederation on February 15, 1786, about the Confederation's financial difficulties. Within that report, the 1783 proposed amendment is mentioned directly as a solution to the debt crisis. What was the Legislature's intent in the authoring act of 1786? 

To solve the debt crisis facing the young Confederacy of States and NOT A PLOT by slaveowners to keep power as the 1619 Project claims.

The proposed amendment itself mentions no intent by the Founding Fathers about perpetuating slavery nor by language say its intent is to perpetuate slavery. If anything, the Founding Fathers' intent was an attempt to define American wealth and how to tax it to finance the early government.