Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Tennessee Lawmaker Ripped for False Claim That Three-Fifths Compromise Was to 'End Slavery'

Tennessee Lawmaker Ripped for False Claim That Three-Fifths Compromise Was to 'End Slavery'
@therecount/Twitter

Republican lawmakers across the country are railing against comprehensive historical teaching in the nation's public schools, especially in regards to race. They argue that critical race theory—an academic approach examining the racism long embedded in systems of United States government and culture—is nothing more than indoctrination.

Former President Donald Trump banned any mention of systemic racism in federal diversity training programs and, most recently, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called critical race texts like The 1619 Project"divisive nonsense" in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, signed by three dozen of McConnell's Republican colleagues.


Republican state legislatures across the country have mobilized to introduce proposals banning The 1619 Project and other comprehensive texts on race from being taught to young adults.

A debate on such legislation was taking place this past week in Tennessee, where state Representative Justin Lafferty accidentally demonstrated the need for unflinching lessons regarding United States history..

Watch below.

Lafferty argued that the founding fathers actively combatted racism and chattel slavery by introducing on the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted Black Americans as three-fifths of a whole person for the purposes of taxation and apportionment in Congress. Black Americans were still not granted voting rights.

At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the South wanted Black Americans to be counted as whole people (again, without voting rights) to give the southern region a near-insurmountable advantage in regards to congressional representation.

Lafferty argued that, by the establishing the Three-Fifths Compromise, the founders were deliberately stifling slavery's ability to continue in the United States:

"By limiting the number of population in the count, they specifically limited the number of representatives that would be available in the slaveholding states, and they did it for the purpose of ending slavery. Well before Abraham Lincoln. Well before Civil War. Do we talk about that? I don't hear that anywhere in this conversation across the country ... Talking about incorporating another view of history while ignoring the writings we have access to is no way to go about it."

Lafferty's argument has been put forth before by conservatives looking to paint a rosier picture of the United States' founding and promote the idea that America is inherently exceptional, but that doesn't make the argument any more accurate.

In fact, at the very same Constitutional Convention Lafferty says the founders fought to end slavery, they actually adopted clauses that guaranteed its continuance. At the convention, it was decided the slave trade would be prohibited from ending before 1808, and even then it wouldn't be required to end. What's more, the founders also adopted policies ensuring the federal government would take the sides of slave owners, rather than enslaved peoples who rebelled or escaped.

But even without those, the Three-Fifths Compromise was far from beneficial for enslaved people.

Historian Paul Finkelman, who specializes in the history and legal impact of American slavery, wrote in a 2013 New York Times op-ed:

"[B]y giving the South power disproportionate to its free population, the three-fifths clause set the stage for Southern control of the federal government and, in conjunction with a difficult amendment process, guaranteed a continuation of slavery. James Madison believed in the direct election of the president but created the Electoral College, which, with the three-fifths clause in place, gave the South great power in presidential elections."

Historians like Dr. Joanne Freeman and Kevin Kruse soon weighed in.




But it didn't take a historian's expertise to know Lafferty was wrong.





Lafferty's Republican colleagues applauded his comments after the speech.

More from News

Pedro Pascal; JK Rowling
Toya Sarno Jordan/Getty Images for Disney; Dave J Hogan/Getty Images

Pedro Pascal Opens Up About Why He Called Transphobe JK Rowling A 'Heinous Loser'

Actor Pedro Pascal recently explained why he said Harry Potter author and anti-trans activist JK Rowling behaves like a "heinous loser," and suffice it to say he has absolutely no regrets.

The comment came in reference to Rowling gloating over the U.K. Supreme Court's recent decision to define what exactly constitutes a "woman" in the eyes of U.K. law, a decision that subjects trans people to violence, among other problems.

Keep ReadingShow less
JD Vance
Johannes Simon/Getty Images

Vance Dragged After Making Cringey Middle Finger Joke About 'Pink-Haired People' At GOP Dinner

Vice President JD Vance was criticized profusely after he attempted to make a joke mocking liberals during his appearance at the Ohio Republican Party dinner this week—only to have people calling out his lack of class for holding up his middle finger as he delivered the punchline.

Vance was in the middle of giving the event's keynote speech when he said the following:

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Trump Ripped After Posting Disturbing Parody Music Video About His Attack On Iran

President Donald Trump is facing harsh criticism after he shared a music video featuring the 1980 song "Bomb Iran"—a parody of The Regents song "Barbara Ann" that is best known for being covered by the Beach Boys—amid a ceasefire between Israel and Iran that could further inflame tensions in the Middle East.

The controversial parody song by Vince Vance & the Valiants plays over footage of B-2 stealth bombers, the same aircraft used to drop 14 GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities, including the Fordow enrichment plant, Natanz complex, and Isfahan site.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump; Zohran Mamdani
Omar Havana/Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Trump Just Tried To Slam Zohran Mamdani's Looks And Voice—And It Was Projection At Its Finest

President Donald Trump lashed out at Zohran Mamdani after the 33-year-old democratic socialist handily defeated former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday—only to be called out for projecting his own feelings of inadequacy onto the star candidate.

Mamdani ran a campaign centered around economic populism, arguing that the city, a global financial center, has grown unaffordable for everyday residents, citing soaring rents and grocery prices, and outlining policies aimed at reducing the cost of living.

Keep ReadingShow less
salad
Anna Pelzer on Unsplash

Doctors Explain Which Seemingly 'Healthy' Foods Aren't All That Good For Us

Every day it seems like some new health fad pops up.

Eat this, don't eat that.

Keep ReadingShow less