Why the Three Fifths Compromise was Important

Why was the Three Fifths Compromise Important?

Debates over representation

How is the Three Fifths Compromise misunderstood?

Why was it so important?

The question of how the states would be represented in The House of Representation was an intense debate at the Constitutional Convention. Southern states, with large slave populations, wanted slaves to be counted towards their population so they would in turn have more representatives in the House. The Northern delegates, argued that the Slaves were property, like "cattle or livestock" according to Elbridge Gerry, a delegate from Massachusetts, and should not be counted in the states population.

When people talk about the Three Fifths Compromise today it is often misunderstood. It should not be viewed as evidence that the framers were pro or anti-slavery, because some framers were for slavery and some were against. It should also not be used to say they thought of African Americans as three fifths of a person, all though most framers didn't view them as equals, it was merely a fraction used to count population.

The Three Fifths Compromise was so important because it did exactly what it was supposed to do. It got the two sides to meet in the middle. If all slaves were to be counted, then the slave states would have had 50% of of the seats in the house. If none of them were counted, they would have 41% of the seats (Janda). Both of these outcomes would have been unacceptable to one of the parties. Without this, and a few other key compromises, the Constitution probably would have never been passed, and the States could have elected to break away from The Union.

Three Fifths Compromise Today

In 2013, Emory University President, James Wagner, used The Three Fifths Clause was a good example of how people with differing political ideologies can find common ground. Wagner received criticism for his praise of the compromise. I think part of the reason people criticized him so much is because they don't fully understand The Three Fifths Clause. It is not about race or saying Slaves were three fifths a person, it was more or less just a mathematical formula to account in terms of representation for all the slaves in the south.

What was the Three Fifths Compromise?

Effects of the Three Fifths Compromise

The Three Fifths Clause was a compromise between the Northern states' delegates and the Southern States. It stated that the population of each state should be determined by adding, "the whole number of free persons" and "three fifths of all other persons" (US Const. I, sec. 2). The "all other persons" included slaves, and indentured servants, but not untaxed indians. The compromise was proposed by, James Wilson, a delegate from Pennsylvania. Wilson got the idea from a failed attempt to change the Articles of Confederation in 1783. The original plan involved tax representation that counted slaves similarly (Wiecek)

There were many effects to the Three Fifths Compromise. One of them being the Constitution becoming the law of the land because both the Southern and the Northern delegates agreed. A more tangible effect is seen in representation. "In 1811 this produced eighteen slave-state representatives more than the southern states would have had if slaves had been excluded altogether from apportionment." (Wiecek). The Three Fifths Compromise gave the South so much more power over the North that John Adams claimed, "slave representation has governed the union." (Wiecek). Another event was effected by the Three Fifths Compromise was the Presidential Election of 1800. According to Pultzier-Prize winning author and historian, Gary Willis's novel, Negro President; Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson would of never been president without it. Jefferson had less votes then opponent Adam Burr, but did so well in the more powerful South he ended up winning the presidency (Pavao).

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