When first written, the Constitution <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A treated people of African descent as property. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
B explicitly outlawed slavery in the new nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
C granted people of African descent “equality under the law.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
D did not mention slavery or rights for people of African descent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The correct answer and explanation is:<\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n Correct Answer: A. Treated people of African descent as property.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When the U.S. Constitution<\/strong> was first written in 1787<\/strong>, it did not use the word “slavery” directly, but it included provisions that treated enslaved people\u2014most of whom were of African descent\u2014as property rather than full persons<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most significant examples of this is the Three-Fifths Compromise<\/strong> (Article I, Section 2, Clause 3). This clause allowed a state to count three-fifths of its enslaved population<\/strong> when determining representation in the House of Representatives. This was not about recognizing the humanity of enslaved individuals, but rather a compromise between slave-holding and non-slave-holding states about political power. It reduced enslaved people to a fraction of a person for the purpose of representation and taxation, reinforcing their status as property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, the Fugitive Slave Clause<\/strong> (Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3) required that enslaved individuals who escaped to free states be returned to their enslavers<\/strong>, further supporting the legal status of people of African descent as property rather than citizens or equals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Importantly, while the Constitution did not use the term “slavery”<\/strong> until the 13th Amendment<\/strong> (ratified in 1865, which abolished slavery), its early provisions enabled and protected the institution of slavery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, the correct interpretation of the Constitution\u2019s original treatment of African-descended people is that it institutionalized their status as property<\/strong>, giving legal protection to the practice of slavery without explicitly naming it. The idea of “equality under the law”<\/strong> or outlawing slavery came much later, during and after the Civil War.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When first written, the Constitution A treated people of African descent as property. B explicitly outlawed slavery in the new nation. C granted people of African descent “equality under the law.” D did not mention slavery or rights for people of African descent. The correct answer and explanation is: Correct Answer: A. Treated people of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quiz-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23715,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23714\/revisions\/23715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Explanation:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n