Q 01/05

At the 1787 Convention, which region's delegates wanted enslaved people counted in full for seats in Congress?

A) New England

B) The South

C) The Mid-Atlantic

D) The West

Answer · why

B) The South

The South wanted every enslaved person counted to win more seats, while Northern delegates wanted none counted. The ratio was the middle ground betwee...

Q 02/05

Which amendment, ratified in 1868, replaced the three-fifths clause by counting every person in each state?

A) The Fourteenth

B) The Tenth

C) The Twelfth

D) The Nineteenth

Answer · why

A) The Fourteenth

The Fourteenth Amendment's second section wiped out the fraction, and it also threatened to cut the seats of any state that denied citizens the vote, ...

Q 03/05

The Constitution's three-fifths clause avoided the word slaves; which phrase did the 1787 text use for enslaved people?

A) Persons in bondage

B) Laborers for life

C) All other Persons

D) Property in men

Answer · why

C) All other Persons

All other Persons was a euphemism: after naming free people, the clause let those three words stand for the enslaved without ever saying so.

Q 04/05

Which candidate won the presidency in 1800 with a margin that the three-fifths bonus more than supplied?

A) Thomas Jefferson

B) Aaron Burr

C) Alexander Hamilton

D) Patrick Henry

Answer · why

A) Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson beat the sitting president 73 electoral votes to 65, and scholar Akhil Reed Amar writes that without the three-fifths bonus he would ...

Q 05/05

In which city did delegates to the Constitutional Convention reach the Three-Fifths Compromise in the summer of 1787?

A) Annapolis

B) Philadelphia

C) Williamsburg

D) Boston

Answer · why

B) Philadelphia

Philadelphia hosted the delegates in the Pennsylvania State House, the building now called Independence Hall, from May to September.