Yesterday was the anniversary of the signing of the 14th Amendment in 1868. It’s in the news because it’s the law that established birthright citizenship in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it’s also important for several other things it did in the wake of the Civil War to address the legacy of slavery. One of which was a new “apportionment clause” that overturned a previous rather grotesque one from the country’s original Constitution, that read like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRepresentatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, 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 other Persons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read that again carefully. \u201cThree fifths of all other Persons.\u201d This cold-hearted mathematical calculation, known as the \u201cThree-Fifths Compromise,\u201d was demanded by the southern states in order to increase slave-holder representation in Congress. To offset the relatively thin population of white folks in the south versus the north, slaves would be counted as part of the Census, at the rate of 3\/5 of a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Three-Fifths Compromise was structural and long lasting, and provided the South with decades of super-sized representation in government. For example, in 1793, slave states held 47 of the 105 seats in the House, but would have held only 33 without the Compromise. By 1833, slave states held 98 out of 240 seats, instead of the 73 they would have held based on white population alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Three-Fifths Compromise ensured that slavery persisted much longer than it may have otherwise, and it remained in effect until the ratification of the 14th Amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, mathematically speaking, as far as the United States government has been concerned, from Independence until the Civil War, black lives mattered 3\/5 as much as white lives did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
***<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which brings us back to the present, and the current conservative desire to question long-standing established policies. OK, you want to relitigate past decisions? Then lets leverage the brutal simplicity of mathematics, and serve up some retroactive justice through the power of inverse reciprocity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
.Henceforth, folks identifying on the voter rolls as African American shall be counted as Five-Thirds of a person. Their votes for candidates shall count as Five-Thirds of a normal vote, ensuring they shall receive proportionally outsized representation in Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And since fair should be fair, the calculation shall remain in force for the exact same amount of time that the Three-Fifths Compromise existed \u2013 from September 17, 1787 to June 8, 1866 \u2013 a total of 28,753 days. So, if it goes into effect on January 1, 2027, it shall remain in force until September 22, 2105.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sound severe to you? Well it doesn\u2019t even begin to address the hundred or so years of segregation from the end of the Civil War until the signing of the Civil Rights Act, an even longer additional 36,243 days of injustice and misery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it\u2019s a start. It\u2019s long overdue. And the math is brutally simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s the Five-Thirds Compromise. Sound good?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday was the anniversary of the signing of the 14th Amendment in 1868. It’s in the news because it’s the law that established birthright citizenship in the United States. But it’s also important for several other things it did in the wake of the Civil War to address the legacy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Three-Fifths-Rule.png?fit=2192%2C1230&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2190,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions\/2190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}