Former Texas Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby wrote a fascinating article for the Houston Chronicle last week about the history of redistricting in the United States. Hobby covers the Voting Rights Act, Baker v. Carr, and even Reconstruction-era reapportionment fights.

One of the most interesting stories to us is about how 19th Century Republicans had a near-immediate case of buyer’s remorse when they realized that freeing the slaves would up-end the infamous “Three-Fifths Compromise” that had counted each slave as only 3/5 of a person in congressional reapportionment:

The original Constitution said only three-fifths of the slaves were to be counted for apportionment. When the North won the Civil War, Congress abolished slavery by the 13th Amendment, thereby putting the other two-fifths of the slaves into the apportionment base.

That would have given the Confederate states 16 more seats in Congress and new electoral votes — enough to give the Democrats control of Congress and elect a president.

Hobby discusses several strategies Republicans tried to offset the expected Southern gains, but the situation was ultimately defused because of strong growth in Western states, severe under-counting of African-Americans and Southerners in the 1870 Census, and Civil War casualties which offset the end of the 3/5-era.

The article has a whole host of stories from later years, and it’s well-worth a read. And of course, if you’d like more information about these topics, RedistrictingFacts.com has fact sheets about the Supreme Court and Redistricting, the Voting Rights Act and Redistricting, and redistricting law in each state.