Why was the issue of enslaved African Americans so important to the states during the Philadelphia Convention?
The issue of enslaved Africans (they were not yet African-Americans, according to Chief Justice Taney, in Dred Scott)concerned the delegates at the Philadelphia Convention on only two counts. One, as potential population to be counted in determining representation from each state, and two, as the fuel for an American economy that depended on Southern productivity. That’s all.
