Talk:BOT Log

Daniel M. Rhodes I beg to differ. According to the 1790 census mandated by the Constitution Virginia had 292,267 slaves and the largest number of other free men in the Northern States was in Pennsylvannia where there were 6,537

What is the source for your information?

Mine came from These Truths by Jill Lepore with the section on the composition of the Constitution primarily sourced from Madison's notes taken during the Constitutional Convention. page 156 James Madison pointed out 'the right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States...the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes' and while I Wunder what's covered over in the ellipses and the languages is literally archaic it clear the South through Madison was indicating they would not surrender the advantage the 3/5ths gave them. Finally when the Constitution was written only propertied men could vote in all States.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_rights_in_the_United_States#Background

Which led to 'By the time the United States Constitution was ratified (1789), a very small number of free blacks were among the voting citizens (male property owners) in some states.[10] The United States Constitution did not originally define who was eligible to vote, allowing each state to determine who was eligible. In the early history of the U.S., some states[which?] allowed only white male adult property owners to vote, while others[which?] either did not specify race, or specifically protected the rights of men of any race to vote.[11][12][13][14] Freed slaves could vote in four states.[15] Women were largely prohibited from voting, as were men without property. Women could vote in New Jersey until 1807 (provided they could meet the property requirement) and in some local jurisdictions in other northern states. Non-white Americans could also vote in these jurisdictions[which?], provided they could meet the property requirement.'

And let me make sure I got your final point right If you live in a densely populated area your vote for President should count less because otherwise propertied men living in sparsely populated lands couldn't out vote you? You would have fit right in. You know the underlying rationale of the 3/5th was slaves were 2/5ths property and could be used to meet the property requirement to vote.

https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1790/number_of_persons/1790a-02.pdf