re: #46 chadu

I don’t think so-it permitted the slave states to be far more powerful than they would have been been without the additional representation that counting 3/5 of the slaves as population. It probably prolonged slavery. I don’t think there was serious doubt that Blacks were people-perhaps a lower form, but people nonetheless. You don’t let non-humans nurse your babies, raise your children, and for the men-be your mistress.

What doomed slavery was both the increasing realization of the immorality of the system and the industrial revolution which made slavery far less economically beneficial. Or so I learned many decade ago in high school.