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The Three-Fifth Compromises Of The Northern And Southern States

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The compromise found in the United States Constitution that will be discussed in this essay is the three-fifth compromise. The three-fifth compromise was in regards to Southern states wanting to count slaves as three-fifths of a person when determining the population but in order to count slaves, those from the north wanted taxation in proportion to representation. The compromise can be found in Article one, section two and states the following, “Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians …show more content…

The two delegates that proposed this compromise were James Wilson of Pennsylvania and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. The “northern states agree with this compromise if the southern states would agree to apply this proportion to taxes as well” (Jillson, 43). The Southern states wanted the representation assigned by population, after the Virginia Plan was rejected, the three-fifths compromise seemed to guarantee that the South would be strongly represented in the House of Representatives and would have a disproportionate power in electing …show more content…

Delegates from the north opposed slavery and only wanted to count those that were free. Northern delegates argued that slaves where property and why should they be counted, if slaves where counted would other property be counted as well (Jillson, 43)? The southern states on the other hand, supported slavery and wanted to count slaves at their actual number. The compromise was counting all other persons (anyone who was not free) as only three-fifths of their actual number. This meant for every five slaves it equaled three free persons. The southern states wanted to make sure that slaves were counted in the population so that they would be able to have more representation within the government and gave the white slave owners more political clout while the northern states did not agree with slavery they did want their property to be counted (Jillson, 44). Including the slaves in the population made the southern states believe they would then have more power when it came time to elect the President. Having this power would allow them to continue owning slaves and help steer laws in regards to slavery. The southern states relied on slaves to help with much of the work that needed to be done, such as growing and taking care of crops. So for southern states

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