It was written in the Constitution of the United States that:

“Representatives 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.”- Article 1, Section 2

As Americans, we actually counted people of African descent as three-fifths of a person.

3/5 of a person.

They weren’t even considered a “whole person.”

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How could this have even happened?  How could it be written down in the founding documents of the United States that it was making “a more perfect union” when real people were being treated as though they were beneath the white European males who were running America??

It boggles my mind that human beings could treat each other in such a way that certain people thought they were sub-human. Out of all the things that are different about each and every one of us, being human is our one common denominator.  And to strip someone of that natural-born fact is horrendous.

This statement about the worth of certain people stayed in the Constitution until the 14th Amendment was passed in 1868.  But the sentiment remained much longer than that.

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“The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body. After all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind.”- Francois de la Roche Foucauld

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