Fifth Amendment Economic Changes

The United States of America as a whole desperately wanted separation from Britain as did the individual colonists who did not like the way they were being treated. After many years of fighting in battle, the Americans won the revolution and right to independence. As a result of the revolution, there were changes, such as women having the right to an education, the structure of the government into a bicameral legislature, and slaves becoming viewed as people by the government, along with continuities, such as slaves remaining property to the southern plantation owners who wanted to exercise their right to the Fifth Amendment, which impacted the state’s economy, social structure, and congress representation. One social change taken upon the …show more content…
At first, under the Articles of Confederation, the leaders wanted a government based on popular sovereignty, which was by the people-for the people. Because these leaders had just come out of such tight control under the rule of Great Britain, the states didn’t want to give the government too much power. This gave the majority of the power to the states. However, the political leaders soon realized that individual state governments weren’t working and decided to change the rule of the government once more. Now the country shifted to a strong central government with a bicameral legislature of a congress with the Senate and the House of Representatives. The senate has two representatives per state, and the House of Representatives is based off of population of each state, where larger states get more representatives. This government also established an executive branch which has a president chosen by the Electoral College to overlook and run things, and a judicial branch to enforce the laws set in place and keep the president in check; known as checks and balances. Therefore, this new government still gave the people power and a voice, but not too much power to where they could destroy the government and the …show more content…
By adding the slaves as people and giving these southern states a larger population, these states would have more representatives in the House of Representatives. The north disagreed stating that they can’t have it both ways; the slaves were either property or people, and if they were people they can’t be bought or sold. But the south wouldn’t back down in their argument to make slaves count towards their population. So, desperately wanting to avoid war and keep the country united, the government came up with the 3/5th’s compromise. This changed slaves from being property into slaves becoming 3/5th’s of a person. The compromise was agreed upon because it benefited the north and the south; it made the South’s population go up so they would get more representatives in the house of reps. and the north would now receive more taxes because that slave is now a person who has to pay taxes. Because of these reasons, this change affected the United States both socially and economically. In conclusion, there were continuities and changes faced by the United States of America shortly following the revolution that expand far beyond women’s right to an education, the structure of the government, and the position of slaves. But based on the examples given, one can infer