For whereas five slaves had counted for them in the ante bellum apportionment of representatives as three freemen, five serfs would count in the post-bellum apportionment as five free men--a pretty large gain for the new power over the old one in federal numbers.
This quote highlights the political gains made by the former slaveholding class after the Civil War.
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More from Archibald Henry Grimké
I cannot conceive why a black man may not as reasonably object to my color, as I to his.
I am invited to occupy a broader field, and to engage in a higher enterprise; that field embraces the whole country--that enterprise is in behalf of the slave population.
It is a gangrene preying upon our vitals--an earthquake rumbling under our feet--a mine accumulating material for a national catastrophe.
Under it we have the double moral standard and the double legal standard operating throughout that section with a vengeance.