What was the Three-fifths Compromise?

The Three-fifths Compromise was an agreement established during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention . It addressed how enslaved people would be counted when determining a state's population for congressional representation and direct taxation. The compromise stipulated that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted toward both representation in the House of Representatives and taxation. Northern states wanted to limit the South's political power by counting only free citizens, while Southern states wanted to include the entire enslaved population to maximize their representation. The Three-fifths Compromise was a way to balance these competing interests, even though it meant that slaveholding states were overrepresented in national politics.

Why was the Three-fifths Compromise created during the Constitutional Convention?

The Three-fifths Compromise was created during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 as an agreement between the Northern and Southern states regarding the issue of slavery and how it would affect taxation and representation in the House of Representatives. The Southern states wanted enslaved people to be counted as part of their population, which would give them more representatives, despite the fact that enslaved people could not vote. The Northern states, some of whom sought to abolish slavery, wanted representation to be based on the size of a state’s free population. The Three-fifths Compromise resolved this issue by counting three-fifths of the enslaved population when determining a state's population for representation and taxation purposes.

How did the Three-fifths Compromise affect the counting of enslaved people?

The Three-fifths Compromise, agreed upon at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 , stipulated that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted for determining both direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives. Southern delegates wanted enslaved people counted to increase their representation in Congress, despite denying them the right to vote. Northern delegates, some of whom opposed slavery, wanted representation based on the size of a state’s free population. The compromise meant that slaveholding states were overrepresented in national politics, but it also increased their federal tax burden, as the same ratio was used to determine each state's tax contribution.

What impact did the Three-fifths Compromise have on representation in Congress?

The Three-fifths Compromise had a significant impact on representation in Congress. It was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention between the Northern and Southern states. The compromise stipulated that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted when determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives. Southern states wanted enslaved people to be counted to increase their representation, while some Northern states wanted representation based on the size of a state’s free population. The Three-fifths Compromise ensured that slaveholding states would be overrepresented in national politics, but it also increased their federal tax burden. Some scholars argue the compromise and racism are at the root of the Electoral College, suppressing votes of people of color in favor of voters from largely white states.

How did different states react to the Three-fifths Compromise?

The Three-fifths Compromise of 1787 stipulated that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives. Delegates from the Northern states wanted representation based on the size of a state’s free population. Southern delegates threatened to abandon the convention if enslaved people weren't counted. The compromise allowed slaveholding states to count three-fifths of their population of enslaved individuals when apportioning representatives to Congress. This meant that those states would be overrepresented in national politics. The same ratio would determine the federal tax contribution required of each state, increasing the direct federal tax burden of slaveholding states.

When and how was the Three-fifths Compromise eventually ended?

The Fourteenth Amendment , ratified in 1868, effectively ended the Three-fifths Compromise . While the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in 1865, it was the Fourteenth Amendment that specifically nullified the Three-fifths Compromise by mandating that representation in the House of Representatives be based on the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. This pivotal change ensured that all citizens, regardless of race, were counted equally for representation, thereby dismantling the discriminatory practice of counting enslaved individuals as only three-fifths of a person.

Three-fifths compromise

Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Allyn Cox: The Constitutional Convention

How the Whitney Plantation teaches the history of slavery

Quick Facts

Related Topics:: Constitution of the United States of America

See all related content

Three-fifths compromise

United States history

Written and fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

History

Top Questions

What was the Three-fifths Compromise?
The Three-fifths Compromise was an agreement established during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention. It addressed how enslaved people would be counted when determining a state's population for congressional representation and direct taxation.

The compromise stipulated that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted toward both representation in the House of Representatives and taxation. Northern states wanted to limit the South's political power by counting only free citizens, while Southern states wanted to include the entire enslaved population to maximize their representation. The Three-fifths Compromise was a way to balance these competing interests, even though it meant that slaveholding states were overrepresented in national politics.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Why was the Three-fifths Compromise created during the Constitutional Convention?
The Three-fifths Compromise was created during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 as an agreement between the Northern and Southern states regarding the issue of slavery and how it would affect taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.

The Southern states wanted enslaved people to be counted as part of their population, which would give them more representatives, despite the fact that enslaved people could not vote. The Northern states, some of whom sought to abolish slavery, wanted representation to be based on the size of a state’s free population.

The Three-fifths Compromise resolved this issue by counting three-fifths of the enslaved population when determining a state's population for representation and taxation purposes.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How did the Three-fifths Compromise affect the counting of enslaved people?
The Three-fifths Compromise, agreed upon at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, stipulated that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted for determining both direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.

Southern delegates wanted enslaved people counted to increase their representation in Congress, despite denying them the right to vote. Northern delegates, some of whom opposed slavery, wanted representation based on the size of a state’s free population. The compromise meant that slaveholding states were overrepresented in national politics, but it also increased their federal tax burden, as the same ratio was used to determine each state's tax contribution.
2 Britannica Sources
1. sectionalism: Early North-South sectional struggles over slavery
2. Three-fifths compromise
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What impact did the Three-fifths Compromise have on representation in Congress?
The Three-fifths Compromise had a significant impact on representation in Congress. It was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention between the Northern and Southern states. The compromise stipulated that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted when determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.

Southern states wanted enslaved people to be counted to increase their representation, while some Northern states wanted representation based on the size of a state’s free population. The Three-fifths Compromise ensured that slaveholding states would be overrepresented in national politics, but it also increased their federal tax burden. Some scholars argue the compromise and racism are at the root of the Electoral College, suppressing votes of people of color in favor of voters from largely white states.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How did different states react to the Three-fifths Compromise?
The Three-fifths Compromise of 1787 stipulated that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.

Delegates from the Northern states wanted representation based on the size of a state’s free population. Southern delegates threatened to abandon the convention if enslaved people weren't counted. The compromise allowed slaveholding states to count three-fifths of their population of enslaved individuals when apportioning representatives to Congress. This meant that those states would be overrepresented in national politics. The same ratio would determine the federal tax contribution required of each state, increasing the direct federal tax burden of slaveholding states.
2 Britannica Sources
1. sectionalism: Early North-South sectional struggles over slavery
2. Three-fifths compromise
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
When and how was the Three-fifths Compromise eventually ended?
The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, effectively ended the Three-fifths Compromise. While the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in 1865, it was the Fourteenth Amendment that specifically nullified the Three-fifths Compromise by mandating that representation in the House of Representatives be based on the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. This pivotal change ensured that all citizens, regardless of race, were counted equally for representation, thereby dismantling the discriminatory practice of counting enslaved individuals as only three-fifths of a person.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Three-fifths compromise, compromise agreement between delegates from the Northern and the Southern states at the United States Constitutional Convention (1787) that three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.

Many of the Founding Fathers acknowledged that slavery violated the ideal of liberty that was so central to the American Revolution, but, because they were committed to the sanctity of private property rights, the principles of limited government, and the pursuit of intersectional harmony, they were unable to take bold action against slavery. Moreover, the Southern Founders’ thoroughgoing embrace of slave-based agriculture and their deeply ingrained racial prejudice solidified the barriers against emancipation. That the Continental Congress removed Thomas Jefferson’s statement regarding the injustice of the slave trade (and, by implication, slavery) from the final version of the Declaration of Independence is emblematic of the Founders’ resolve to subordinate the controversial issue of slavery to the larger goal of securing the unity and independence of the United States.

Notwithstanding the initial disagreements over slavery at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the framers of the Constitution continued to privilege the maintenance of unity of the new United States over the eradication of slavery by resolving to again defuse sectional tensions over the matter. As they went about creating a new scheme of government, the delegates from the small and large states were divided on the issue of the apportionment of legislative representation. The Virginia, or large state, plan provided for a bicameral legislature with representation of each state based on its population or wealth; the New Jersey, or small state, plan proposed equal representation for each state in Congress. Neither the large nor the small states would yield, but the deadlock was resolved by the Connecticut, or Great, Compromise, which resulted in the establishment of a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the lower house and equal representation of the states in the upper house.

The matter of how to determine population was anything but trivial. Having failed to secure the abolishment of slavery, some delegates from the Northern states sought to make representation dependent on the size of a state’s free population. Southern delegates, on the other hand, threatened to abandon the convention if enslaved individuals were not counted. Eventually, the framers agreed on a compromise that called for representation in the House of Representatives to be apportioned on the basis of a state’s free population plus three-fifths of its enslaved population. This agreement came to be known as the three-fifths compromise:

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 should be noted that neither the word slave nor the word slavery appears in this clause or anywhere in the unamended Constitution.

Granting slaveholding states the right to count three-fifths of their population of enslaved individuals when it came to apportioning representatives to Congress meant that those states would thus be perpetually overrepresented in national politics. However, this same ratio was to be used to determine the federal tax contribution required of each state, thus increasing the direct federal tax burden of slaveholding states. Provision was also added to the Constitution for a law permitting the recapture of fugitive slaves, along with a moratorium until 1808 on any congressional ban against the importation of slaves, though in the meantime individual states remained free to prohibit slave imports if they so wished.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.