What was the purpose of the three fifths compromise?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

Electoral votes are given to states based on the states population. Southern states didn't have many people living there other then slaves. So the southern states wanted slaves to count towards the states population. but the north argued that slaves aren't American citizens. to settle the argument, both the North and the South compromised and said that each slave will count as three fifths of a person toward the states population.