FACT CHECK: ARTICLE 1, SECTION 2, CLAUSE 3 OF THE FINAL CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA PROTECTS SLAVERY

17 Oct
Author John Needham

INVESTIGATOR:

John Needham

VERDICT REVIEW:

INACCURATE

FACT CHECK DETAILS:

FACT TAG EARNED: INACCURATE, VERY LOW CREDIBILITY

EXPLANATION TAG EARNED: NONE

LOGIC TAG EARNED: NONE

CONTEXT TAG EARNED: NONE

EXAGGERATION TAG EARNED: NONE

SOURCE TAG EARNED: NONE

IMPRECISE LANGUAGE TAG EARNED: NONE

OBJECTIVITY: NOT REVIEWED

FACT TAG EARNED: INACCURATE

No. Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 are delegated powers from the States invested in its agent, the Congress of the Confederate States, according to Article 1, Section 1 of the Confederate Compact.   These delegated powers define a slave’s value for calculating a State’s political representation in the Confederacy’s federal House of Representatives, Electoral College and in apportioning direct taxes when employed. The language presented in this article does not convey protection but only recognition.

SOURCE: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.a0001984012&view=1up&seq=915&q1=constitution, Page 915

ARTICLE 1, SECTION 2, CLAUSE 3 OF THE FINAL CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA

“Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States, which may be included within this Confederacy, 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 slaves.  The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the Confederate States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct.  The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every fifty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of South Carolina shall be entitled to choose six; the State of Georgia ten; the State of Alabama nine; the State of Florida two; the State of Mississippi seven; the State of Louisiana six; and the State of Texas six.”

WHAT WAS THE LANGUAGE’S PURPOSE?

  1. Calculate each State’s representation in the Confederate Federal House of Representatives.  Every five slaves would be counted as three freemen when an enumeration, a census, was taken every 10 years. Every 50,000 freemen that State would receive or ‘apportioned’ at least one representative.
  2. Assist in the total calculation of Presidential electors that each State sends to the Confederate Electoral College.
  3. When the Confederate Congress lays a direct tax, it will be ‘apportioned’ or divided among the States by the three-fifths population rule but not before an ‘enumeration’ or census of the Confederacy’s population is made first.
  4. The first enumeration, or census, would take place three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the Confederate States.
  5. To determine how many representatives the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas would have in the Confederate Federal House of Representatives until the results of the first enumeration, or census. 

SOURCE: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.a0001984012&view=1up&seq=915&q1=constitution, Page 916

THE MEMBER STATES OF THE CONFEDERACY DETERMINED THE LEGALITY OF THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY

Legislatures, the governing bodies of a Colony or State, determined the legality of the institution of slavery. Those States where the institution was practiced a slave code was established for its legality. The practice of using slave codes was used established when the States were Colonies of the British Empire. In 1691, the Province of South Carolina copied the Jamaican codes of 1684. The South Carolina slave code served as the blueprint for the other English colonies in North America. The codes followed the States through the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution. As time progressed, politics changed. Under the Constitution of the United States, some of those same States, where slavery was legal, abolished the practice of the institution. New York abolished slavery in 1827 and Maryland in 1864. Prior to the War of 1861, the States had the ability to establish, administer and abolish slavery. The result of War ended the institution with the ratification of the 13th Amendment; Meaning all States in the compact, even those coerced back, agreed to make the slavery illegal to practice. The question, over the legality of slavery, for some States was made for them by the very agent which they had created. Also, the compact entitled, the “United States Constitution” mentions nothing about the States having delegated or given the “general government”, its agent, the power to take away from the States to make the determination for itself which joined or created the compact. Any powers not expressly delegated or given to the ‘general government’ are held by the States per the 10th Amendment.

SOURCES:

Rugemer, Edward B. (2013). “The Development of Mastery and Race in the Comprehensive Slave Codes of the Greater Caribbean during the Seventeenth Century”. 

The William and Mary Quarterly. 70 (3): 429–458. doi:10.5309/willmaryquar.70.3.0429.  JSTOR 10.5309/willmaryquar.70.3.0429.

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair user” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of ‘fair use’.