How the South used slavery for political purposes

The Electoral College is an important part of the US electoral process. Founded in 1787, it has its roots in slavery and Southern politics. The system was created to balance power between large and small states, but allowed the South to increase its political influence by counting enslaved people in the population.

The Compromise of 1787

During the Constitutional Convention, delegates debated the election of the president. Northern delegates, generally opposed to slavery, argued for a system based solely on the population of free individuals. But Southern delegates sought to increase their political influence by including enslaved people among their population. This desire led to a compromise known as the “Three-Fifths Compromise,” in which each enslaved person would be counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of representation in Congress.

The structure of the electoral college

The structure of the Electoral College is directly affected by this compromise. Each state is allocated electors based on the total number of members of Congress – both senators and representatives – determined by its population. By including three-fifths of the enslaved population, Southern states were able to inflate their representation and give them disproportionate power in electing the president.

Virginia, for example, with a sizable population of enslaved people, controlled a significant share of the electoral vote. This agreement not only benefited the slaveholding states in presidential elections, but also strengthened their political dominance in Congress.

Consequences

The impact of this political structure was enormous. It helped maintain the power of the slave states and contributed to the conditions that led to the Civil War. When Abraham Lincoln, who opposed the expansion of slavery, won the presidency in 1860, the Southern states felt their power waning and decided to secede from the Union.

Since its inception, the Electoral College has resulted in four presidential candidates winning the popular vote but losing the election, with Al Gore's loss to George W. Bush in 2000 being the most significant example. This has led to calls for reform over the years, with ten Democratic states joining a popular vote movement to ensure the candidate with the most votes wins.

In 1969, the House of Representatives passed a constitutional amendment to replace it with a statewide popular vote, but Southern senators blocked it to protect their political advantages.