Dbq Essay

Daphnie Telemaque

October 18, 2008

In the 1790s representatives from colonies had begun their creation of a constitution which purposely had instilled the idea of a weak government. The idea of the weak government had revealed the major flaws that affected the black minority across the nation. This left African Americans deprived of the rights given to white males and labeled them as livestock instead of human beings. The question of how slaves were to be presented under the constitution left disagreements between the northern and southern states. It was finally resolved by the three-fifths compromise. The three fifths compromise was proposed by a Pennsylvanian delegate, James Wilson at the constitutional convention of 1787 as a compromise between Southerners and Northerners over how to count slaves for the purposes of determining representation in the House of Representatives and for taxation. This allowed for southern slave holding states to count each of their slaves as three-fifths of their population. This is significant because population determined how many seats each state received in the House of Representatives. This was the beginning of the suggesting to free the slaves, seeing how hiring workers was cheaper. Workers could provide their own food, housing, and medical care, with their employer paying only a small, weekly or monthly. The larger states wanted to count their slaves as part of the population, and not property, but the smaller states didn't want this to pass, due to the lack of people in their state. Eventually, after much debate, they settled the issue and allowed the slaves to be counted as merely three fifths of a person, not a full person. Even though the slaves were not being counted fully as "property" some still were not satisfied, and wanted to be fully, "people" in other terms meant that 60% of a slave was human and 40% was livestock. In 1792, Benjamin Banneker, a free black man and successful mathematician, challenged Thomas Jefferson's former statements concerning the capabilities of those of the African race. He writes a letter to Thomas Jefferson confronting the seeming hypocrisy of Jefferson's statements about human rights in the Declaration of Independence with his practice of owning slaves.“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.” Banneker also questions how Jefferson can support such a tyrannical system, in light of Jefferson's own struggle to fight off tyranny in the form of the British crown. He asked that Jefferson respect African Americans and allow them the same rights he has. In 1791, a group of free blacks wrote a petition to the South Carolina legislature asking for an end to discriminatory laws. They state that in the year of 1740 the Negro Act which was created for better governing of negroes and other slaves, now in force, had failed to give the rights and privileges of citizens by not having it in their power to give testimony in prosecutions on behalf of the state; from which caused many culprits to escape punishment for their crimes. Slaves have been killed and their murders have not been given a punishment because the victims were slaves and they are not subject to prosecution by the testimony made by slaves. The constitution which gives freedom to all men has subliminally excluded slaves and people of other races from that freedom and rights. This revealed flaw in the constitution which in reality, allowed white men to have the freedoms promised by the

document. The creators of the constitution had forgotten the race of people that made up America.

These two letters pertain to one topic: that of Jefferson's beliefs about the African race's capacity for intellect and achievement compared to white men. In the first letter, Banneker, a free black man and successful mathematician, challenges Jefferson's former statements concerning the capabilities of those of the African race. Jefferson is familiar with Banneker’s background—by this time, Banneker has shown his intellect by being one of the few men chosen to help survey the land that would become Washington, D.C., and he accurately predicted the solar eclipse of 1789. Banneker opens his letter by directly confronting the seeming hypocrisy of Jefferson's statements about human rights in the Declaration of Independence with his practice of owning slaves. Banneker also questions how Jefferson can support such a tyrannical system, in light of Jefferson's own struggle to fight off tyranny in the form of the British crown. Banneker recognizes that scientific-minded Jefferson will ask for direct proof that black men are equally capable, so he provides it. In addition to the letter, Banneker sends to Jefferson a handwritten copy of his soon-to-be-published scientific data for his 1792 almanac. Banneker hopes that the intellect he displays by contributing the data for this almanac will satisfy Jefferson's question as to whether a black man could ever equal a white man, in terms of achievement and intellect. The second letter, then, is Jefferson's response to Banneker. The letter is somewhat cordial, but quite short and direct. Jefferson thanks Banneker for the almanac and offers his hopes that the black race lacks intellect only due to their "degraded condition" as slaves, rather than as an entire race of people destined for failure. Jefferson also notes that he will send the almanac on to antislavery Marquis de Condorcet, the secretary of The Academie des Sciences in Paris at that time.

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%2Band%2Blouis%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe %3Dactive%26sa%3DN This allowed for southern slave holding states to count each of their slaves as 3/5th's of their population. This is significant because population determined how many seats each state received in the House of Representatives. This was the beginning of the suggesting to free the slaves, seeing how hiring workers was cheaper. Workers could provide their own food,housing, and medical care, with their employer paying only a small, weekly or monthly. The larger states wanted to count their slaves as part of the population, and not property, But the smaller states didn't want this to pass, due to the lack of people in their state. Eventually, after much debate, they settled the issue and allowed the slaves to be counted as merely three fifths of a person, not a full person. Even though the slaves were not being counted fully as "property" some still were not satisfied, and wanted to be fully, "people".