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MAGA pol calls the Constitution's 3/5ths compromise a “great move to eradicate slavery" [1]

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Date: 2025-04-28

“We forget everything. What we remember is not what actually happened, not history, but merely that hackneyed dotted line they have chosen to drive into our memories by incessant hammering” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

When a MAGA explains US history, you have to check you aren't being pranked. Last week, Indiana's Lt. Governor offered his interpretation of the Constitution's 3/5ths clause with such unhistorical exuberance and disregard of scholarship the listener had to think they were watching a video from The Onion.

But Micah Beckwith was serious when he explained that the compromise, which allowed slave-owning states to count each slave as 3/5ths of a person in the allocation of US House seats, was, in fact, a cunning measure by the North to rid the new nation of slavery.

If you missed it, the Washington Post reported on this whitewashing of the historical record in a piece headlined (paywall should be down):

Indiana lieutenant governor calls Three-Fifths Compromise 'a great move' Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith (R) said the compromise ultimately helped end slavery, while historians generally agree it reinforced the power of slave states.

The report explained:

Democrats in the Indiana Senate had on Thursday argued against a bill that curbed diversity, equity and inclusion programs by comparing it to the Three-Fifths Compromise. The debate prompted Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith (R) to take to X to rebuke the Democrats for thinking the agreement made at the 1787 Constitutional Convention "was some sort of terrible thing in our past."

I have listened to Beckwith's history lesson. Here are the highlights. (For context the reader should know that Micah went to a small Christian college. He majored in business economics. He is a Pastor. And he describes himself as a ‘Christian nationalist.’) He starts with a sneer. (The full video is below.)

"They [the Democrats] were saying this was a bad bill because it encourages discrimination just like the '3/5ths Compromise.'

Beckwith calls bullshit on that view of the compromise

"I would like to share with you the 3/5ths compromise is not a pro-discrimination compromise. It was not a 'slave driving' compromise that the founders made. It was just the opposite. It was a compromise that the North made with the South."

Beckwith explains that the US at the time was similar to the EU today. Why? I'm not sure. He then claimed that the North had said to the South that if those pro-slave states wanted to use their slaves to increase their congressional representation, it would be a non-starter.

He continued his fictional constitutional convention dialogue by claiming that the Northern states had said that if the South wanted to use their property (i.e., slaves) to gain more representation, then they would respond in kind. In Beckwith's words:

"Fine, if you want to count your property [air quotes], your slaves as whole people, we're going to count our property. We're going to count our tables. We're going to count our chairs. We're going to count all the stuff we have in our house. And the South said 'you can't do that'. And they [the North] said, 'well your doing that with your property, we're doing that with our property.'

The impasse was broken when:

"what they did is that they came up with a 3/5ths compromise". They said, 'You'll only get 3/5ths of a vote when it comes to your slaves. And what that did, it limited the number of pro-slave representatives in Congress by 40%."

Note: You could equally well argue that the compromise increased the pro-slave representatives in Congress by 60%. But either way you put it, the compromise increased pro-slavery representation.

Beckwith celebrates this brilliant piece of strategy by those cunning Northern anti-slavery negotiators.

"This was a great move by the North to make sure that slavery would be eradicated in our nation.”

Let's review Beckwith's effort so far. I had not heard the North threatened to use furniture to boost their Congressional representation. Maybe I was asleep in that class. However, the reader can CLICK HERE for a link to Max Farrand's The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 if they want to look for themselves.

Regardless, I'm not sure how great the move by the North was, as it took 78 years, and a Civil War that killed 100,000s and ruined the South's economy, to eradicate slavery.

Micah returns to the current day. He explains that the Democrats have no clue about American history because America's educational system is lousy with pernicious influences:

“And now you have Democrats in today's American Republic who do not understand that. They think that the 3/5ths compromise was a scourge on Black people. That's not what it was. How did we get to this place? Because of DEI in education. We got to this place because you have professors at woke schools that will not teach the history of what actually happened back in the foundations if our nation.”

I cannot speak to the American system as, despite being a native-born (New York) American citizen, I was educated in England. However, my schools did teach the American Revolution and its constitutional aftermath — on the grounds the English were involved. And I can state without fear of contradiction that no DEI was involved in my education.

From 8 to 18, I attended two all-boys, all-white, boarding schools, where the only diversity was an occasional Catholic, the son of an Iranian diplomat — and me. And never once was it hinted that the 3/5ths compromise was an anti-slavery measure. Nor were told of the inclusion of furniture in the debate (see above).

Beckwith's historical fantasy didn't stop in 1787. He continued:

“Many, many men and leaders in our nation's history knew how wicked slavery was. They knew how God had created Black people, white people, red people, all people in his image who were fighting for equality for all. But they're not taught that today.”

Beckwith then says this failure to educate is why Democrats claim the 3/5ths compromise was a "terrible thing." Luckily he knows better:

"it was actually the exact opposite. It helped to root out slavery and lead us into a more perfect union that we now see, where Black, white, red, brown, all people can have equal representation under the law. That's what the 3/5ths compromise was all about.”

I'm not sure how Jim Crow fits into this utopian narrative. Or why, if everyone had equal representation under the law, the 13th , 14th, and 15th amendments were necessary, why women had to fight for the vote, why white conservatives were so against the 1960s Civil Rights and Voting Rights Laws, and religious conservatives were against LGBTQ rights. Sadly, Bickwith ignores these questions.

Our MAGA scholar finishes with a warning.

S”o don't buy into the DEI, radical, revisionist history that is happening in today's culture. Know your history. Go back and study the documents. Read them for yourself — like I have. Go look 'em up, and you will find that the 3/5ths compromise, and many other things like that, were designed to make sure that justice was equal for all people and equality really meant equality for all.”

The reader will note this challenge to 'do the research.' This is the way it always is with people making stuff up. If they had evidence for their contention they would point to it. Tell the listener where to find it. Offer references. But as they don't have, they challenge the listener to do the work. Sorry mate, it's not my responsibility to validate your argument.

Here is the video.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/28/2319341/-MAGA-pol-calls-the-Constitution-s-3-5ths-clause-a-great-move-to-eradicate-slavery?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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