The Three Fifths Compromise 

Of 1787 
By: Cole Adams  
Per.1 - Mr. martin 
Three fifths compromise was at the constitutional convention which lead to end slavery

trade. The three fifths compromise was a important event because On 1787 July 16 the three

fifths compromise was introduced at the Constitutional Convention by James Madison, and

supported by Roger Sherman, and James Wilson about the count for population for

representation and taxation of states that own slaves. ​The compromise had a triumphant effect on

Political, Social, and Economical of slave owning states​.

The main contributors were James Madison, Roger Sherman, and James Wilson at the

constitutional convention. The three fifths compromise was brought up because the southern

states wondered if their slaves counted in their population for house of representatives. The

power generated from the three fifths compromise casused Slavery trade to end.

The three fifths compromise was triumphant in a ​Political​ standpoint. The compromise

was balancing power between the Southern and Northern States. In the website “​The three-fifths

compromise: Rationalizing the irrational​,​” by Donald Applestein Esq. the text stated, “​The

Southern states were fearful that they would be overwhelmed in the House by the ‘large’ states

— Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. To increase their representation, the Southern

states wanted their large number of slaves to be included in the population count. Of course, the

large states did not want to relinquish their numerical advantage in the House”(Esq 1). Which

shows that the Southern states knew that they would have less house of reps than the northern

states if their slaves wouldn’t count in their population, this is important because they needed

house of rep to be able to still trade slaves to gain wealth.

 The three fifths compromise was a triumphant event in terms of a ​Social​ standpoint from

the minds of the founders. In the text of “​What Did the Three-Fifths Compromise Actually Do?​”

by Alex Sayf Cummings in the text stated, “... the founders had to be willing to diminish the

humanity of slaves by not counting them fully for the purposes of taxation, but still counting

them (somewhat) for the purposes of giving the South representation… Southerners got the

benefit of partial representation for people who were property, who could not vote and

essentially had no rights, while not necessarily getting taxed on all their population (or

property)” (Cummings 1). This shows that the founders were willing to diminish the humanity of

the slaves and, is saying is that they didn’t even think of them as people they thought of them

rather as property. This was triumphant for the founders because they were getting more people

on board, but also a tragedy because the slaves were being “made fun of.”

The three fifths compromise was triumphant in a ​Economic​ standpoint for the northern

and southern states. In the text of “​What Did the Three-Fifths Compromise Actually Do?​” It

states, “... this compromise was for both representation and taxation without thinking about what

that actually meant. In fact, American historians know that few “direct taxes” were imposed by

the federal government prior to the Civil War. During the antebellum era, the feds depended

mostly on excise taxes (on goods such as liquor) and customs duties (on goods coming into the

country). As Richard Bensel argued in his book​ ​Yankee Leviathan,​ the United States only

consolidated a truly national government during the crisis of the Civil War. Prior to the conflict,

the federal government had a rather weak hold over the states and exercised few powers of

taxation and regulation” (Cummings 2). This means that the taxes were because they were saving

up money just in case the civil war happened in which it did. This was triumphant because the
northern and southern states had to start paying taxes on their slaves but not for as much then

they would if they were counted fully.

Sure some would say that the three-fifths compromise was a bad thing because they

weren’t ending slavery right there a then, but without slavery we would probably still be a 3rd

world country and our economy wouldn’t be look so good. The northern states would think it

was a tragedy because they didn’t want any slaves to count in the population for the northern

states.

The compromise had a triumphant effect on Political, Social, and Economical of the

southern and northern states.The three fifths compromise was only significant short term because

of the 14th amendment which repealed the three fifths compromise but before it got repealed it

was used for stopping slavery trade. because the 14 amendment made slavery illegal and the

3/5ths compromise just stopped slavery trade. The three fifths compromise lead to the civil war

in which the civil war made the 14th amendment which ended slavery, but the three fifths

compromise was only for ending slavery trade.