Let me begin by stating that I admit that I am not a historian or a scholar of constitutional law. Even so, I have always been astounded by the ‘three-fifths’ phrase in the Fourth Amendment. What about the theology of the Imago Dei? And, to add insult to injury, this term is so contradictory to the words we find in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” How could this have been thought acceptable by such educated men, many of whom were committed Christians? For example, John Witherspoon, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was a Scottish American Presbyterian minister and a Founding Father of the United States.[1] He was the only active clergyman to sign the Declaration. In 1789, he was the convening moderator of the First General Assembly of Presbyterian Church in the United States.[2] Being that the Declaration is so closely tied to someone in our own family tree, as Presbyterians, makes it all the more unsettling in its assessment of the value of other human beings. Naturally, it cuts at the core of how many African-Americans understand their self-worth. In an effort to understand this psychological wound, I thought it would be beneficial to better understand the driving forces behind the three-fifths wording. My hope is that my brief investigation may uncover damaging societal lies, while also discovering how the gospel might apply to the hearts of living with this part of American history, myself included.
My look into the “three-fifths” phrase took me back to the very founding of our country. The Constitutional Rights Foundation states that “at the time these words were written, more than 500,000 black Americans were slaves. Slaves accounted for about one-fifth of the population in the American colonies, most of which lived in the South.”[3] Even so, there were many colonists, even slaveholders, who opposed slavery; Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and others made disparaging comments about the practice. Despite public statements of disapproval, the issue of slavery and personhood was not even addressed until 1787, when the Constitution was finally ratified. It was during the creation of the House & Senate, which was addressing the power dynamics related to population and representation, that led to the designation of black people as “three-fifths” of a person.[4] So, this insane position was driven by the pursuit of power in our national politics, a compromise between the colonies of the North and those of the South. In particular, the “three-fifths” compromise functioned as a way of keeping a representative balance between the North and the South. Think about that for a minute! The dehumanization of Black people was partially driven by not wanting to lose control in national politics. Black people were a bargaining chip in the early days of our country’s creation, a tool for regional and national power. Of course, there were many other reasons for maintaining this system. Free labor and the greed of economic gain were vital. As a result, the structuring of our society in terms of race became all the more legally evident, even following the Civil War and the end of slavery in 1865.
Following the death of Abraham Lincoln, the presidency of Andrew Johnson began the period of Reconstruction, which was meant to help provide a mental, psychological, political, and economic corrective to a society that had gotten used to seeing Black people as less than human. From 1865 to 1877, the federal government, with the help of Union troops and temporary governors, were able to create a space where Black folks could fully engage in the life of the republic. During this period the constitution was amended to give them full access to American citizenship and its privileges. Of course, slavery had already been permanently prohibited with the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, and the wording “three-fifths” was removed from the Fourth Amendment in 1868. In addition, African-Americans began to be elected to state and national offices and were making economic gains in various fields. However, following the end of Reconstruction, a leadership vacuum opened the door for the disenfranchisement of Black citizens through Jim Crow policies and White supremacist terrorism from the KKK.
Such dehumanizing acts and horrific organizations are nothing new in the breadth of human history. Unfortunately, at the core of all this is the human tendency to consider oneself more valuable than “the Other.” The starting point for this was the Garden of Eden, where the Serpent, Adam, and Eve thought they knew reality better than Creator God. By their act of defiance, they demonstrated their willingness to stage a coup against God. As a result, their sin started a chain reaction that has perpetuated such attitudes throughout human existence. This rebellious strain has been passed on through the generations (see Romans 5). Consider, for example, Genesis 11 and the scattering of the people at the Tower of Babel, where God confused the peoples by giving them different languages. With such confusion, an even a deeper level of uncertainty, fear, and anxiety worked its way into human experience. Consequently, power struggles increased between people groups and empires, which were driven by a desire to dominate others and prove the supremacy of their god(s). In fact, the ancient Israelites and other peoples in the Ancient Near East tried to convey their supremacy over defeated foes through ancient covenants, the language of which could be quite dehumanizing. Even God’s people, Israel, dehumanized their own people and others, just read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and Nehemiah, which all deal with the treatment of the poor, or John 4, which deals with their view of the Samaritans, or Acts 10 on treatment of the Gentiles, to name only a few.
The objective of this post has been to show that degrading the image of God in “the Other” has deep roots that trace back to the beginning of creation. As such, I do not believe there has been a culture in human history that has not been involved in some form of de-valuing of the Lord’s image bearers. So yes, the “three-fifths” designation for African-Americans is a deep stain on the American conscience and the American “record,” but it’s a stain on the garment of every human culture. We thus make ourselves into a mockery in mocking the image of God in others. And yet, the story of redemption is about how the only “true image-bearer” seeks to restore us to our true selves. Stay tuned... more on that story is coming throughout the month of February.