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Image of a large parlor packed fill with men in colonial wear, some standing, others sitting. A chandelier hands and flags fly on the wall.
Painting by Howard Chandler Christie of George Washington presiding over the Constitutional Convention in 1787. (Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images)

The Constitutional Convention declares Indigenous nations sovereign and adopts the "Three-Fifths Rule."

1787

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Painting by Howard Chandler Christie of George Washington presiding over the Constitutional Convention in 1787. (Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images)

At the United States Constitutional Convention, Native communities are identified as sovereign. This is done largely in order to establish nation-to-nation relationships, and to support the new state in building legitimacy by brokering treaties. The convention also decides, as a compromise to settle differences between Northern and Southern states, that enslaved Black people will be counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of representation and taxation.