To satisfy interests in the South, particularly in Georgia and South Carolina, the delegates agreed to protect the slave trade, that is, the importation of slaves, for 20 years. Slavery was protected further by allowing states to count three-fifths of their slaves as part of their populations and by requiring the return of escaped slaves to their owners, even if captured in states where slavery had been abolished. Finally, the delegates adopted the Connecticut Compromise, which proposed a Congress with proportional representation in the lower house and equal representation in the upper house (the Senate) giving each state two senators. While these compromises held the Union together and ensured the Constitution's ratification, they resulted in protecting slavery for six more decades and providing disproportionate power for less populous states, contrary to the principle of one person-one vote. Since the Constitution was ratified in 1789, it has been amended 27 times. The first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, offer specific protections of individual liberty and justice and place restrictions on the powers of government within the U.S. states. The majority of the 17 later amendments expand individual civil rights protections. Others address issues related to federal authority or modify government processes and procedures. Amendments to the United States Constitution, unlike ones made to many constitutions worldwide, are appended to the document. The original U.S. Constitution was written on five pages of parchment. The first permanent constitution, it is interpreted, supplemented, and implemented by a large body of federal constitutional law and has influenced the constitutions of other nations. Background First government From September 5, 1774, to March 1, 1781, the Continental Congress functioned as the provisional government of the United States. Delegates to the First (1774) and then the Second (1775–1781) Continental Congress were chosen largely through the action of committees of correspondence in various colonies rather than through the colonial governments of the Thirteen Colonies. Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States. The document was drafted by a committee appointed by the Second Continental Congress in mid-June and was adopted by the full Congress in mid-November. Ratification by the 13 colonies took more than three years and was completed March 1, 1781. The Articles gave little power to the central government. While the Confederation Congress had some decision-making abilities, it lacked enforcement powers. The implementation