USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Slavery. Though the word “slavery” does not appear in the Constitution, the issue was central to the debates over commerce and representation.

Detailed explanation-2: -Three-fifths compromise, compromise agreement between delegates from the Northern and the Southern states at the United States Constitutional Convention (1787) that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.

Detailed explanation-3: -After the Revolutionary War, many Northern citizens wanted slavery to be abolished on a national scale as well. Many Southern states, however, felt they needed to keep the institution of slavery in order to maintain the agricultural economy based around cash crops like tobacco and rice.

Detailed explanation-4: -By 1850 sectional disagreements related to slavery were straining the bonds of union between the North and South. These tensions became especially critical when Congress began to consider whether western lands acquired after the Mexican-American War would permit slavery.

Detailed explanation-5: -Nevertheless, slavery received important protections in the Constitution. The notorious three-fifths clause-which counted three-fifths of a state’s slave population in apportioning representation-gave the South extra representation in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College.