The Constitution and Slavery essays

The Constitution and Slavery essays 1.The Constitution never mentions the word "slave" or "slavery." Whenever the subject arises, other words are used ("such Persons," "other Persons," "Persons held to Service or Labour"). Why do you think the framers avoided these words? The framers of the Constitution avoided the word slave or slavery because they were trying to avoid the divisive nature of the topic in order to obtain ratification. There were already too many issues to resolve and slavery would likely have promoted a breakdown in the negotiations. For starters, the notion of a centralized government threatened some of the former British colonists. Thus, fair representation became an important issue to agree upon and this was worked out through basing the House of Representatives on population and the Senate on a fixed number of members from each state. However, the South was too dependent on slavery to support its agricultural economy and would not be willing to give up the source of labor it needed to support it. With the threat of three southern states leaving the convention if slave trade was banned, the issue was pushed out until 1808. 2.Some 19th century opponents of slavery considered the Constitution a pro-slavery document. Do you agree? Explain. The Constitution was a pro-slavery document. While, some might view the three-fifths clause as a major step forward in recognizing the slave as a person, what it really did was give the South the representation it needed to hold on to the slave trade. With the Souths increased representation in Congress and the electoral college, Southern slave owners won 12 of the first 16 presidential elections. And, the Constitution kept the slave trade legal for twenty years, allowing for an increase in the number of slaves being brought into the country. Further, the fugitive slave clause protected the ability of slave owners to treat the slaves as property by requiring the return of...

Rate of Radioactive Decay Worked Example Problem

Rate of Radioactive Decay Worked Example Problem You can use the equation of the rate of radioactive decay to find how much of an isotope is left after a specified length of time. Here is an example of how to set up and work the problem. Problem 22688Ra, a common isotope of radium, has a half-life of 1620 years. Knowing this, calculate the first order rate constant for the decay of radium-226 and the fraction of a sample of this isotope remaining after 100 years. Solution The rate of radioactive decay is expressed by the relationship: k 0.693/t1/2 where k is the rate and t1/2 is the half-life. Plugging in the half-life given in the problem: k 0.693/1620 years 4.28 x 10-4/year Radioactive decay is a first order rate reaction, so the expression for the rate is: log10 X0/X kt/2.30 where X0 is the quantity of radioactive substance at zero time (when the counting process starts) and X is the quantity remaining after time t. k is the first order rate constant, a characteristic of the isotope that is decaying. Plugging in the values: log10 X0/X (4.28 x 10-4/year)/2.30 x 100 years 0.0186 Taking antilogs: X0/X 1/1.044 0.958 95.8% of the isotope remains