Most of the black people in America in 1787 were slaves. A slave is a person who is owned by someone else, like a car or a pet. Black people in Africa were packed into ships and forced to come to America. Then they were sold to white farmers in the South. They were forced with generations of their families to work hard on farms, often picking crops like cotton and tobacco. They were not paid. And if they tried to run away, they were often harshly punished.

Were slaves people or property? Slaves themselves were worth money. They could be bought and sold in slave markets, just like sheep or horses. There were few laws to protect them.

Today, there are no slaves in America, but slavery was common in 1787. Most of the men from the North wanted to end slavery. They said everyone should be free. But the people of the South worried because they made money using their slaves.

A big argument started in Philadelphia over the question of slavery. Some men from the South became so angry that they threatened to stomp out of the meeting. So the two sides agreed to a compromise — which means each side gave in a little, but not all the way. Congress would have to wait 20 years before it could make a law to stop the slave trade. Slaves would be counted in a state’s population when deciding how many votes that state would have in Congress. But a slave would not count as a whole person, only as three-fifths of a person.

Many people thought this compromise was terrible. No law was being made against slavery. The Constitution would only allow Congress to limit the slave trade in the future. It did not free any slaves who were here already.

But the compromise was important in getting the new country going. It might have been worse for everyone if the meeting had broken up. Our country might not have been made.

Many years later, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. Slaves were still owned in the South and used on farms without being paid. A great war began between the people of the North and South called the American Civil War. It lasted four years. The economics of slavery was a major reason for the war.

When the North won the fight, the Constitution was changed at last. Slavery was finally outlawed in 1865. Slaves became citizens and were given the right to vote.