They needed slaves to work on their plantations.
Southern states in the United States wanted slaves to count towards their total population in order to gain more representation in Congress and more electoral votes. This was known as the Three-Fifths Compromise, where every five enslaved persons would count as three individuals in determining representation.
slaves
Enslaved African Americans composed about one third of the population of the southern states before the American Civil War.
The Southern states in the United States wanted slaves to count in their total population for representation in Congress. This led to the Three-Fifths Compromise in the Constitution, where slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of determining representation in the House of Representatives.
The northern states didn't have slavery as the southern states did, and they were smaller. They were afraid that if slaves were counted as part of the population that would give the southern states an advantage when they were represented in Congress. In 1790 35% of the population in VA was slave, so that can make a difference in the balance of power between states.
One-Half Compromise was the compromise that dealt with the Northern States concern of the Southern States using slaves as part of the counted population thus influencing their representation in Congress.
South Carolina and Mississippi.
Southern states wanted slaves to be counted in a state's population because it would increase their representation in the House of Representatives and thus give them more political power. This was due to the Three-Fifths Compromise in the U.S. Constitution, which counted each slave as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation.
To get both the northern and southern states to agree to it. The southern states wanted slaves counted in the population for determining representation in Congress (even though slaves couldn't vote). The northern states wanted them excluded.
Slaves represented a sizeable percentage of the population of the antebellum south. In the lower south, slaves represented 47% of the population. The total percentile in the upper south was 29%. The border states had a population of 13% of slaves against the total population.
Although slaves couldn't vote, the Southern states wanted to count them for the purpose of increasing their representation in the House of Representatives. The Northern states didn't want to count slaves at all because the South insisted slaves were property and not persons. The Three Fifths Compromise was was just that...a compromise that allowed the South to count three-fifths of the slaves towards their total population which ultimately gave the South greater representation in congress than they would otherwise have had.
Slaves should be counted when counting a stateโs population to determine representation in congress