American slavery began when wealthy Southern aristocrats replaced their indentured servants with African slaves, held in perpetual bondage for generations. When the Constitution was written in 1787, with a significant portion of its authors slave owners themselves, several concessions were made to the slaveholding South. Most infamous of these was the three-fifths clause, which counted 60% of the state’s enslaved (and disenfranchised) population when determining representation in the House of Representatives, granting the Southern states disproportionate political power.