Reply #5: Something of a "glass half full" type of argument.

[Fenris]

Optimistic reassessments of historical events are outright foolish. Counting a slave as 3/5 of a human was done with both the intent of ending slavery and the intent of preserving it. That's why it is referred to as the 3/5 Compromise.

What is clear is that until the 1860s (and probably beyond) blacks were given a status less than whites - 3/5 of a human being. And that can never be called a positive.