Northerners, wanting to
restrict Southern representation, insisted that slaves not be counted.
Some of them pointed out that it was an insult to whites to be put on
an equal footing with slaves. The compromise which was framed in
Article I, Section 2, was that a slave should be counted as
three-fifths of a man.
Second, the antislavery elements tried to make their stand at the
convention by attacking the slave trade. However, while many Southern
states were opposed to the trade, the issue became entangled in power
politics. South Carolina, which had few slaves, believed that the
termination of the slave trade would force up the price of slaves and
place her at a severe disadvantage in comparison with Virginia which
already had a large slave supply. It argued that Virginia would be
artificially enriched to the disadvantage of the other Southern
states. The states of the North and middle South were again forced to
compromise, and, in Article II, Section 9, they agreed that the trade
would be permitted to continue for another twenty years.
The third capitulation occurred in Article IV, Section 2, which
as the Fugitive Slave Provision.
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