The Real and Racist Origins of the Second Amendment

[bhikkhu]

57. By mid 19th century, just before the civil war

you can look at US census data, though it tends just to specify slave/non-slave, rather than simple race numbers. http://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/overview/1860.html

If you look at it state by state, even in 1860 there were several where slaves were the majority. If you figure in a percentage of free slaves and uncounted, then the numbers would skew pretty easily toward the whole south being dominated by black populations. That only shifted in mid-century with large scale immigration from Europe.

The 3/5s clause was explained to me by a history teacher years ago as being necessary because there just weren't that many white people in the south. They probably didn't want to count slaves, but they had to for the sake of some numerical balance in congress.