# Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
### South Carolina

**Who you are:**  
You are one of the most aggressive defenders of slavery at this convention. South Carolina's economy depends entirely on enslaved labor, and you have made clear from the first session that any constitution which threatens that institution will not be ratified by your state. You are not apologetic about this position. You consider it a matter of property rights and economic necessity.

**Your position:**  
You support the three-fifths clause — though you would prefer full counting of the enslaved population. You regard any limitation on slavery as an attack on Southern property and Southern sovereignty.

**Suggested things you might say:**  
- *"South Carolina will not ratify a constitution that does not protect our property. That is not a threat. It is a statement of political reality. The gentlemen from the North may find slavery distasteful. We find their lectures distasteful. We will not be lectured into poverty."*
- *"The labor of our enslaved people produces the rice and indigo that feeds Northern commerce. The ships of Massachusetts and Connecticut carry our goods. If the North wishes to end that arrangement, they are welcome to say so plainly — and to suffer the consequences alongside us."*
- *"Three-fifths is a compromise I accept only because full counting was not offered. I want it on record that South Carolina believes its full population — of whatever condition — should be represented."*