US Constitution

The Three-fifths Compromise was proposed by delegates James Wilson and Roger Sherman during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention. It was added as Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 to the United States Constitution . It stated:

• Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the 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 not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

It was superseded and thereby rescinded by the 14th Amendment in 1868.

This Compromise and amendment stated that only 3/5 of the number of slaves would be counted. This was important for two purposes, which were: counting slaves in this manner (the first time this was being done with slaves for Congressional purposes) would factor into how many seats each state would have for the following decade (10 years) in the United States House of Representatives. Plus, population statistics in general determine what percentage each state would bear for the nation's direct tax burden.

Delegates opposed to slavery generally wished to count only the free inhabitants of each state. Delegates supportive of slavery, on the other hand, generally wanted to count slaves in their actual numbers. Since slaves themselves could not vote, slaveholders would thus have the benefit of increased representation in the House and the Electoral College. The final compromise of counting "all other persons" as only three-fifths of their actual numbers reduced the power of the slave states relative to the original southern proposals, but increased it over the northern position.

This seems arcane in hindsight, as none of the slaves could actually vote. However, the result of counting "all other persons" as only three-fifths of their actual numbers meant the Southern States ended up with lower numbers of Representatives and Northern States ended up with more Representatives. While it increased Northern States' tax burden overall, the North had more businesses and industries than the poorer Southern States.

Back in early American history, we Americans had a heavily debated issue over whether or not to count the southern slaves as part of the south's population. doing so, this would results in a very large majority in the House of Representatives, for Virginia. To avoid this, Congress came to a conclusion that all slaves would count as three fifths of a person when doing a census. How insulting this must of been!? :l
Formally known as the Three-Fifths Compromise, a clause to allow a slave to be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of taxation and representation in the Congress. It was proposed in July 1787 during the drafting of the U.S. Constitution at the Constitutional Convention. It was negated by the http://www.answers.com/topic/amendment-xiii-to-the-u-s-constitution.