What Happened to the Three-Fifths Clause: The Relationship between Women and Slaves in Constitutional Thought, 1787–1866

Any discussion of the Three-Fifths Clause sooner or later leads to a discussion of women, but never in or of themselves, always in relationship to slaves, or, rather, the institution of slavery. Women’s assumed political incapacity was used to anchor a system of representation that rested on enslavement.