Unless the game show host wears a white hooded robe, you won’t hear a racist say, “U.S. history for $100.” The Constitution was written in 1787, by 55 delegates at convention in Philadelphia. [FN1] Slavery’s significance to our history is something racists have tried to erase. 1/14

IN’s heavily gerrymandered legislature enacts laws that harm/sometimes kill ppl in other States. [FN2] IN’s power-hungry Lt Gov Micah Beckwith can harm ppl outside IN. [FN3] Beckwith tried to ban books [FN4] & last June said a lot of “superintendents and principals in 2/13

today’s culture [do] not want someone like me coming in and teaching on true history [] and what it means to be an American.’” [FN5] A reasonable inference: Beckwith’s “true history” includes his lies about the three fifths clause of the Constitution which states 3/14

how “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States.” Neither “slave” nor a form of it appears in the clause, but after listing everyone else, slaves are “three fifths of all other Persons.” [FN6, FN6a] Beckwith cites no authority to say 4/14

“the 3/5 Compromise was neither pro-discrimination or slave-driving compromise, but the opposite because it ensured "justice was equal for all people" & “a smart move by the North” which didn't want the South to have more power & slaves couldn’t vote. 5/14

1) Slaves did not have “justice” that was “equal” for all people. Black people were “considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings, who had been subjugated by the dominant race” & had “no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” [FN7] 6/14

2) Slave States had more seats in the House, i.e., 3/5 x number of slaves in that State. That meant the Slave States had more seats to block measures that might have been offered to bring about the end of slavery. Beckwith wants to spread this crap in our public schools. 7/14

I’ll call out racist, meely-mouthed assertions, such as those of IN’s Lt Gov, for the crap that they are. This country glimpsed greatness only after slavery was abolished, universal suffrage was the law & corporations were under some control. We need to rejoin that path. Until then... 8/14

BECKWITH, YOU DUMBASS, SLAVES WERE CONSIDERED PROPERTY AND HAD NO RIGHTS. SLAVE STATES HAD MORE POWER BECAUSE OF THE 3/5 CLAUSE.
I’m Mark Small & I approve of this blog. Hell, I wrote it. 9/14

Footnotes:
FN1. See, “America’s Founding Documents: Meet the Framers of the Constitution,” National Archives, accessed 4/28/25. The delegates attended at various times between May and 9/17/87, when 39 delegates were present for signing. 10/14

FN2. Hansen, Kristina, “Indiana Supplying Chicago Gangs with Guns,” Indiana Arrests, accessed 04/29/25; Hauck, Grace, “'Eye-popping numbers': Chicago sues Indiana gun store tied to 850 firearms recovered from crime scenes,” USA Today, 4/27/21, accessed 4/29/25. 11/14

FN3. Beckwith: “God” took credit for January 6. “‘Micah…I sent those riots to Washington.’ He said, ‘what you saw yesterday was my hand at work.’’ Wren, Confessions of an (alleged) book banner, Importantville, 9/24/23.
FN4. Id.
FN5. From Beckwith speech at IN GOP State convention. Nathan Gotsch, 6/10/24. 12/14

FN6. “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, ... 13/14

FN6a. “...including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.” Const. Art. I, sec 2, cl 3.
FN7. Dred Scott v Sanford, 60 U.S. 393, 403-05 (1856), Taney, C.J. 14/14