3/5th Myth

[Dr. Shane]

Tom Hanks publicly pledged his support for Mr Obama

Quote:

"I want Barack Obama to be President of this country, a country that once said people with his skin colour were only three-fifths of a human being."

Are some people so ignorant they don't understand the 3/5th compromise? Slaves were counted as 3/5th. Free blacks in free states were counted as one complete person. It wasn't about the color of the skin. It was about slave or free status.

Would those spreading this distortion of history today preferred that our founding fathers allowed slave states to count all their slaves as part of their populations and thus have greater influence in federal affairs? Those that were anti-slavery didn't want any of the slaves to be counted. And why should have they been? If the southern states were not going to give slaves the same rights as free people, why should have the southern states been able to count them the same as free people?

The 3/5th Compromise was put in the US Constitution as a means to limit the power of slave states in federal affairs. Do people like Tom Hanks think slave states should have had more influence in Congress and Presidential elections?