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The Role of Slavery in Southern Political Strategy within the US Electoral College


In 1787, the United States established a system for electing the president that gave the South a way to boost its political power by inflating its population and influence. This system, known as the Electoral College, was created as a compromise between Northern and Southern states during the Constitutional Convention.

The Electoral College works by assigning each state a certain number of electors based on its population, with a minimum of three electors per state. This system was intended to balance the interests of larger and smaller states, but it also had the unintended consequence of giving the Southern states an advantage in presidential elections.

At the time of the Constitution’s creation, the Southern states had a significant portion of their populations enslaved. By counting slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of determining representation in Congress and the Electoral College, the South was able to increase its political power and influence. This compromise, known as the Three-Fifths Compromise, allowed the Southern states to have more electors than they would have had if only free persons were counted.

Over the years, the Electoral College has come under criticism for a variety of reasons, including its potential to distort the will of the majority and its tendency to focus on swing states during presidential campaigns. Despite these criticisms, the Electoral College remains in place as the method for selecting the President of the United States.

In conclusion, the system for picking the US president was created in 1787, with the South finding a way to increase its numbers and political influence through the Three-Fifths Compromise. This system, known as the Electoral College, continues to play a key role in presidential elections in the United States today.

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Photo credit www.aljazeera.com

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