Today in class, we attempted our first representation of a trial in a case involving a "fee" for a slave-owner harming his own slave. The court included a judge, 4 prosecutors, and 4 defendants. The prosecutors stood strong during their prosecution and had some valid points that easily could've provoked the Judge to stay with the initial fee. But the defendants were very sturdy with the information they provided to the court. Using the Bible and the 3/5 of a person rule dramatically helped them defend Mr. Mann. I felt as though simulating a court case really helped myself learn about the time period and how people would defend something that today we would think was wrong. The main argument was that an African American is only 3/5 of a person, more so just property.
http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~ras2777/amgov/slavery2.html
The link above is to an article about the events surrounding the compromise to make a slave 3/5 a person. It speaks of ideas/choices that the North and the South strongly disagreed upon. It also talks about the rules and regulations with slaves and how they should be treated in some situations.
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