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Indiana’s lieutenant governor is facing backlash from some of the state’s religious and civil rights leaders after he called the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted each Black enslaved person as three-fifths of a human being for the purposes of taxation and representation, “a great move” that led to the abolishment of slavery.
Democrats in the Indiana Senate had on Thursday argued against a bill that curbed diversity, equity and inclusion programs by comparing it to the Three-Fifths Compromise. The debate prompted Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith (R) to take to X to rebuke the Democrats for thinking the agreement made at the 1787 Constitutional Convention “was some sort of terrible thing in our past.”
“It was not. It actually was the exact opposite—that helped to root out slavery,” Beckwith said in a video arguing that the compromise limited the number of pro-slave representatives in Congress because it didn’t allow Southern states to count enslaved people as whole people. “Don’t buy into the DEI, radical revisionist history.”
The comments drew condemnations from the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, the Indiana Chapter of the National Action Network and the Alliance of Baptists. In a joint statement Friday, the groups said Beckwith’s take on the compromise was itself “historical revisionism,” and asked Indiana Gov. Mike Braun (R) to publicly denounce Beckwith’s comments.
“Let us be clear: the Three-Fifths Compromise was never about compromise; it was about control,” the groups said. “It was about counting enslaved African bodies for political power while denying them humanity, freedom, and rights. To call this a ‘great move’ is not only historically inaccurate but morally repugnant.”
The groups called on Braun to mandate that Beckwith issue a “full and formal retraction.” Braun and Beckwith did not respond to requests for comment Saturday.
Historians have generally agreed that the 1787 compromise benefited the Southern states and the institution of slavery rather than helping to eliminate it. Though the South failed to make it so enslaved people would count for more than three-fifths of a person—without legal rights like voting—the agreement still amplified the political power of slave states relative to the representation they’d have were enslaved people not counted at all.
It’s not the first time the agreement has been misconstrued by politicians, as debates have raged in state legislatures over systemic racism and how it should be taught in schools.
Republican lawmakers in Tennessee, Colorado and Oregon made headlines in recent years for arguing that the Three-Fifths Compromise was an antislavery measure. In 2021, Tennessee state Rep. Justin Lafferty claimed the deal was struck “for the purpose of ending slavery. Well before Abraham Lincoln. Well before Civil War.”
Conservative political commentator and radio host Glenn Beck made a similar argument in 2010, and during President Donald Trump’s first administration, the White House released “The 1776 Report,” which credited the compromise with “set[ting] the stage for abolition.”
Historians largely dismissed the “The 1776 Report” as a politicized project riddled with errors. Historian Staughton Lynd wrote in the 1960s that the compromise “sanctioned slavery more decidedly than any previous action at a national level” because, even though the agreement did not codify slavery into law, it acknowledged a difference between free people and “other Persons.”
The compromise remained in effect until the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, known as the “Reconstruction Amendments,” following the Civil War.
Beckwith’s video on X came after the Indiana Senate passed the controversial anti-DEI measure, Senate Bill 289. The bill, which has been sent to Braun’s desk for his signature, bars publicly funded institutions, like public school districts and universities, from taking actions for or against an individual based on characteristics like race or religion.
Senate Democrats had blasted the measure as “a step backward” for Indiana’s diverse communities who face discrimination in the state, the Indy Star previously reported. During contentious debates, lawmakers said S.B. 289 ignores the country’s legacy of racism and discrimination, citing the Three-Fifths Compromise as one example.
But Beckwith pushed back against the assertion Thursday, moments after state senators voted 34-16 to approve the measure.
“You had the Senate Democrats who are getting up, talking about the Three-Fifths Compromise, like it was some sort of terrible thing in our past. It was not,” Beckwith said.
The joint statement from Indiana religious and civil rights groups called Beckwith’s comments “beneath the dignity of Indiana’s second-highest elected office.”
“The Lt. Governor’s comments dishonor the memory of those who were enslaved, disrespect the struggle of generations who fought for civil rights, and display a dangerous disregard for the continuing racial disparities that still plague our state and nation,” the statement read.
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Maybe Micah could follow this up by telling us all that the SAVE Act will be great for married women when Indiana decides not to take marriage licenses as additional documentation.
What’s sad is that a war of treason lost by the southern states still wasn’t enough to change any attitudes.
He’s so awful. A true theocrat, constantly trying to erode separation of church and state. He needs to go.
Rev. Beckworth is not on the right side of God or history. His claim that the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted each Black “a great move” that led to the abolishment of slavery doesn’t pass the smell test.
Passed in 1776, it would be another 88 years before slavery was banished in every part of the United States. It was the Civil War and the combat deaths of 111,904 Union soldiers (including my gr-gr-grandfather) that gave enslaved Blacks their freedom.
It was a good compromise.
It deleted the power of the slaveholders greatly.
The slaveholders wanted slaves counted as while persons for greater political power.
It also kept the union of the states intact until the outbreak of the Civil War.
The three B’s (Braun, Beckwith and Banks) are a constant embarrassment to Indiana.
+1
💯
Most assuredly…I am SO tired of being embarrassed by Indiana
politicians….
Agree. They are an absolute disgrace to Indiana.
Have any of you left wingers taken a U.S. History Class?????
The 3/5 compromise was a good compromise for the following reasons.
1). It diluted the political power of the slave holding south. The Slaveholders demanded that slaves be counted as whole persons for much greater political power.
2). The 3/5 compromise kept the union of the states together until the Civil War.
3). Without the 3/5 Compromise the Slave holding states probably would have seceded and slavery would not have been abolished during the Civil War.
We would have been a divided country and slavery probably would have lasted well past 1865.
Nothing Christian about Beckwith. Pathetic that Hoosiers elected him.
A statement worthy of impeachment.
I’m going to have to guess Beckwith was educated either at home or a private religious school, because there is a definite lack of education here.
If I called Beckwith three-fifths of a man, I’d be overselling him.
Study the 3/5 compromise and you will understand why it was good.
Apparently there is no bottom to the depths to which this clown will go to pander to his White Christian Nationalist base. And this is the man the MAGAt Republicans want to replace Todd Young…
be worried, Indiana and the US…be very worried. Micah Beckwith and Jim Banks representing Indiana in the US Senate…
This is no surprise to those that saw him vote to remove the book, “Why?: A Conversation about Race” from the kids library section when he was on the HEPL board. https://amzn.to/3GsXj7X
Time for a lot of people to simply leave this state. Braun is not going to publicly say anything because he believes it as well. Remember his interracial marriages should be left up to the states comment. They are just now saying out loud what they have believed all along.
His comments are just pure racism and mirror white supremacist talking points.
You can’t fix stupid. But, stupid is scary for an elected person in the executive branch of government.
Idiot and racist
Hoosier Democrats had better get their butts in gear because Beckwith has is 1) corrupt and disgusting and 2) has given them every kind of ammo that they need. It has been four months and he’s engaged in blatant quid pro quo corruption, trolled taxpayers on their time, called Hoosier women whores, pushed for millions of state dollars to flow to his chain of churches, and is clearly a seething racist.
Aside from this rant being completely ahistorical (Slave States very explicitly did not want to count enslaved persons as whole individuals because they did not believe in their humanity. It was not a “genius move” to achieve abolition), something good the Republicans did 150 years ago is not a license to be racist.
Do you leftists ever study history????
The 3/5 compromise was extremely important for the reasons that
John S. stated.
Good grief!!!!!!! Take a U.S. History course.
Your glorious “compromise” was a political fantasy and unsustainable falsehood. It directly permitted the enslavement of 10 million people. The undeniable truth that all of us are equal eventually unraveled the lie, and led to the Civil War deaths of over 600,000 Americans.
Who was the dummy, really?
Yes, I study history quite extensively. But I don’t use the white-washed ahistorical nonsense from Prager U to do so.
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