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The Importance Of The Three Fifths Clause

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The three-fifths clause was the most important constitutional compromise because it granted the Southern states more political authority, which the Southerners then used to maintain slavery as an institution in the upcoming decades. The three-fifths clause made it so that three-fifths of a state’s slave population would be used in order to decide how many electoral votes and how many representatives a state could have. It was a compromise between the South (which relied on slaves for its economy) and the North (which had fewer slaves) for the sake of political unity. This clause guaranteed Southern states more political power than Northern States through votes or representation, so that laws would pass that allowed slavery to continue and flourish.

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