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America *does* have an extremely ugly history when it comes to slavery, and the Founders were little exception(see: the 3/5ths Compromise and the political shitbaggery that accompanied it).
It does bear mentioning, though, that even in the 1780s there was a lot of controversy regarding slavery as an institution. By now, for example, most states north of the Mason-Dixon line had abolished slavery outright or had passed laws making it completely untenable.
You do know that the 3/5ths clause was actually a good thing for the black slaves right? The southern states wanted to count them as people in the census so as to increase the representation of the southern states in the Federal Government, but also called them “property”. Had the southern states gotten their way, they would have been able to push the northern states around and never gotten rid of slavery.
I kind of wish there was a little side bar with the people or dialogue. I’m not sure who that guy in the black suit is without doing some searching.
So who was seriously talking about abolishing slavery at the time?
Gonna get to all that on the very next page!
A lot of people actually, anti slavery groups popped up almost as soon as the trans-Atlantic slave trade started, and the less agrarian North always had significantly less support for slavery.
In fact, a number of northern states had already banned slavery by this point(not all of them, but several – enough for it to start to be a political problem in the south). The Gov’neer was pretty unique in how outspoken he was, though – while a large number of delegates were very cold towards the idea of slavery, it was a *very* touchy subject and, much like the tension between proponents of the Delaware and Virginia plans, it threatened to tear the convention apart at the seams.
Above all else, the delegates wanted stability, so they went with the more politically expedient option of kicking the can of the slavery question down the road. Alas.
Using the proposed 3/4 requirement for ratification, Georgia, NC, SC, and Virginia would be enough to block any move toward basic human decency.