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What Happened to the Three-Fifths Clause: The Relationship between Women and Slaves in Constitutional Thought, 1787–1866
- Journal of the Early Republic
- University of Pennsylvania Press
- Volume 37, Number 1, Spring 2017
- pp. 1-46
- 10.1353/jer.2017.0000
- Article
- Additional Information
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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.