A Tenessee Republican somehow defended the three-fifths compromise — the racist section of Article one, section two of the Constitution that declared that any person who was not free would be counted as three-fifths of a free individual for the purposes of determining congressional representation. The clause increased the political power of slaveholding states and took the power away from people of color.
On Tuesday, Knoxville Republican Rep. Justin Lafferty defended that clause by claiming that its purpose was to bring an end to slavery.
“The three-fifths compromise was a direct effort to ensure that Southern states never got the population necessary to continue the practice of slavery everywhere else in the country,” Lafferty falsely said. “What does that mean? Appropriation based on population. We’ve got nine state representatives. By limiting the number of population in the count, they specifically limited the number of representatives that would be available in the slave-owning states, and they did it for the purpose of ending slavery.”
Watch:
TN State Rep. Justin Lafferty (R) claims the three-fifths compromise — counting Black people as less than a person — was included in the Constitution “for the purpose of ending slavery.” pic.twitter.com/A6OpfRIwMd
— The Recount (@therecount) May 4, 2021
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That’s just straight-up not true, and Twitter users quickly weighed in.
This doesn’t even remotely make sense. On any level.
— Aaron Astor (@AstorAaron) May 4, 2021
Now they just making up shit. https://t.co/JuL3nSQZFS
— KI6LAT (@TigerfangLacey) May 4, 2021
This is 100% false but to see a large swath of America argue over the semantics of slavery and racism rather than try to face and solve the issue pretty much proves that we still live in a racist country that refuses to do what is necessary to “root out racism” https://t.co/dteCOcSVLo
— Justin Sweeney (@justindsweeney) May 4, 2021
yeah, in a perpetuating kind of way.
Where the hell did this ‘genius’ learn that?
— Todd (@ToddF_Imagine) May 4, 2021
The slave owners wanted to own the vote of each individual slave, this would gain the slave owners more political power in Congress if each slave was counted as a person. Then the Slave owner would use these votes as their own.
— Party of Fear (@kdevil66) May 4, 2021
I mean, what better way to end slavery than including provisions in the Constitution that… don’t actually end it?
— Pé (@4everNeverTrump) May 4, 2021
Why is that assclown trying to defend the indefensible? I guess it’s a trait you need to join the Republican party.
Featured image via screen capture
