Southern delegates argued enslaved people were property, not taxable free persons.

Evidence

On the same hot summer day, a second issue divided the delegations on an even deeper fault line than big states versus small states. Following Franklin’s draft, the committee proposed using population as a proxy for wealth in allocating costs among the states to finance the war effort and government expenses. When the full Congress took up this article on July 30, Samuel Chase of Maryland moved that it use only the number of “white inhabitants” to allocate requisitions. “Negros are property,” he explained. “There is no more reason therefore for taxing the Southern states on the farmer’s head, and on his slave’s head, than the Northern ones on their farmers’ heads and the heads of their cattle.” — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 293

Categorization

• XREF: Direct precursor to the three-fifths compromise; valuable for the course on how race and property concepts entered fiscal-constitutional allocation. — connects to: Franklin answered proslavery property claims by noting enslaved people could revolt. — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 295; Calhoun argued representation gave the slaveholding South no protection — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 634; The Constitutional Convention barred antislavery discussion yet slavery still dominated it — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 303 (+3 more)
• SEED: Cherry-pick this ‘Negros are property… cattle’ exchange as the hinge of an essay on how apportionment debates forced the legal articulation of enslaved people as property.

Broader Connections

• Calhoun argued representation gave the slaveholding South no protection #contradicts (0.85) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 634
• Southern extortion threats secured pro-slavery provisions in the Constitution. #expands (0.85) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 785
• The Constitutional Convention barred antislavery discussion yet slavery still dominated it #expands (0.80) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 303
• The Constitution contains specific provisions protecting enslaved people as property #expands (0.80) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 547