Three-Fifths Compromise

And the story
continues . . .

• The Continental Congress creates the first government - Articles of

Confederation – a weak constitution!

• An economic depression hits, states are fighting and the

government is too weak to do anything about it!

• The Continental Congress tries to create a new government, but

states fight over how it should be structured.

• The Virginia and New Jersey Plans are created.

• The Great Compromise devised by Roger Sherman finally settles

the dispute.

• The summer of 1787, after a bitter debate, the states agreed on the

structure of the government.

• The United States would have three branches of government.

• Two houses were formed that favored both large and small states by

creating an Upper House “the Senate” and a Lower House “House of
Representatives.”

Regardless of population
each state receives TWO
representatives

Representatives are
based on the state’s
population.

Federal

Government

Legislative Branch

“Congress”

- Creates and passes the laws -

Executive Branch

-Carries out the laws-

Judicial Branch
-Decides if laws are fair-

Upper
House

“The Senate”

Lower House

“House of

Representatives”

Multiple Choice

The lower house of Representatives is based on ...

• the state's population

• the votes of the Federal Government

• the senate.

• The Great Compromise,

as it was called, resolved
the issues between the
small states and the large
states.

• But now another issue

presented itself that
pitted the northern states
against the southern
states.

VS.

The House of Representatives is
based on state population. The
states with the most people get
more votes in that house.
More votes = more power.

Federal

Government

Legislative Branch

“Congress”

- Creates and passes the laws -

Executive Branch

- Carries out the laws -

Judicial Branch
- Decides if laws are fair -

Lower House

“House of

Representatives”

Upper House
“The Senate”

Hint! More people = more

votes!

But what does this have to do with
slavery in the South?

Open Ended

What do you think the northern and southern states are disagreeing about? How is it related to the title, "Three-Fifths Compromise"?

• Southerners wanted to include

slaves in the population count even
if they would not let slaves vote.

• If slaves were counted, southern

states would have more
representatives in the House of
Representatives.

• But Northerners said that slaves

should not be counted since they
were considered property and not
people.

“Upon what principle is it that the slaves shall be computed in
the representation? Are they men? Then make them citizens,
and let them vote. Are they property? Why, then, is no other
property included? The houses in this city (Philadelphia) are
worth more than all the wretched slaves who cover the rice
swamps of South Carolina.”

~ Gouverneur Morris, Pennsylvania Delegate

“If property be the rule of representation . . Why then should the
blacks, who were property in the South, be in the rule of
representation more than the Cattle and horses of the North?”

~ Elbridge Gerry, Massachusetts Delegate

“I cannot agree to the motion, notwithstanding it is favorable to
Virginia, because I think it unjust. It is certain that the slaves
are valuable, as they raise the value of land, increase the
exports and imports, and of course the revenue, would supply
the means of feeding & supporting an army, and might in cases
of emergency become themselves soldiers. As in these
important respects they are useful to the community at large,
they ought not to be excluded from the estimate of
Representation. I cannot however regard them as equal to
freemen and cannot vote for them as such. It is worthy or
remark, that the Southern States have this peculiar species of
property, over & above the other species of property common
to all the states.”

~ George Mason, Virginia Delegate

• Once again the delegates compromised. They agreed that 3/5

of the slaves in any state would be counted.

• If a state had 5,000 slaves then 3,000 would be included in the

state’s population.

• This became known as the Three-Fifths Compromise

.

White men were counted in the

population.

Three of every five black slaves were

counted in the population.

• In 1790, 26% of North Carolina’s population and

43% of South Carolina’s were slaves. Counting
3/5thof the slave population in these states gave
North and South Carolina more representatives
and thus more voting power in the House of
Representatives.

• With the Supreme Court, twenty of the thirty-

five justices up to 1861 were from southern
states.

• More American presidents were elected from

southern states than northern states. Nine of the
fifteen presidents before Lincoln were southern
slaveholders.

The Three-fifths Compromise benefitted the southern
states up until the Civil War.

• There was another disagreement over slavery. By 1787, some

northern states had banned the slave trade within their borders.
They urged that the slave trade be banned in the entire nation.

• Southerners warned that such a ban would ruin their economy!

Look at the types of
crops grown in the
South. Why would
slavery be in such high
demand in the southern
states?

• Would end a cheap labor supply.

Slaves worked for free (cheap
labor) harvesting and tending the
southern crops which were sold
around the world. Ending it
would harm the southern and US
economy.

• Less Profit. Southern plantation

owners wouldn’t make a large
profit $$ if they had to pay their
slaves.

• Racism. Many of the Founding

Fathers were slave owners
themselves and had difficulty
envisioning a society that
included black men equal to
whites.

• The South threatened to leave.

The southern states during tense
negotiations threatened to leave
the union, something the fragile
new government did not want.

In the end, the two sides
compromised once more.

1. Northerners agreed that

Congress could not outlaw
the slave trade for at least
twenty years! After that,
Congress could regulate the
slave trade if it wished.

2. Northerners also agreed

that no state could stop a
fugitive (run-away) slave
from being returned to an
owner who claimed that
slave.

• On September 17, 1787, the Constitution was ready. Gathering for

the last time delegates listened quietly as Benjamin Franklin rose to
plead that the document be accepted:

• One by one, delegates came forward to sign the document. Of the 42

delegates remaining in Philadelphia, 39 signed the document.

• Edmund Randolph and George Mason of Virginia, along with Elbridge

Gerry of Massachusetts refused to sign. They felt the new
Constitution gave too much power to the national government.

• The Constitution required

each state to hold a state
convention to decide if the
plan for the new government
should be accepted.

• Before that occurred, the

new Constitution was
discussed and debated in all
the states.

• Once 9 of the 13 states

endorsed it, the Constitution
would become the law of the
land.