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The Three-Fifth Compromises Of The Northern And Southern States

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The compromise found in the United States Constitution that will be discussed in this essay is the three-fifth compromise. The three-fifth compromise was in regards to Southern states wanting to count slaves as three-fifths of a person when determining the population but in order to count slaves, those from the north wanted taxation in proportion to representation. The compromise can be found in Article one, section two and states the following, “Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among 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 …show more content…

The two delegates that proposed this compromise were James Wilson of Pennsylvania and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. The “northern states agree with this compromise if the southern states would agree to apply this proportion to taxes as well” (Jillson, 43). The Southern states wanted the representation assigned by population, after the Virginia Plan was rejected, the three-fifths compromise seemed to guarantee that the South would be strongly represented in the House of Representatives and would have a disproportionate power in electing …show more content…

Delegates from the north opposed slavery and only wanted to count those that were free. Northern delegates argued that slaves where property and why should they be counted, if slaves where counted would other property be counted as well (Jillson, 43)? The southern states on the other hand, supported slavery and wanted to count slaves at their actual number. The compromise was counting all other persons (anyone who was not free) as only three-fifths of their actual number. This meant for every five slaves it equaled three free persons. The southern states wanted to make sure that slaves were counted in the population so that they would be able to have more representation within the government and gave the white slave owners more political clout while the northern states did not agree with slavery they did want their property to be counted (Jillson, 44). Including the slaves in the population made the southern states believe they would then have more power when it came time to elect the President. Having this power would allow them to continue owning slaves and help steer laws in regards to slavery. The southern states relied on slaves to help with much of the work that needed to be done, such as growing and taking care of crops. So for southern states

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the small and big states. This compromise was known as “The Great Compromise.” The terms of the compromise was that there would be two chambers of congress, with different forms of representation. In the House of representatives, representation would be dependent of the population of each state. In the Senate, representation would be equal between all states.

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The state representatives often failed to see the big picture, and think with the nation’s best interests first and foremost. Fortunately compromise was found and Roger Sherman brought together the Connecticut Compromise, which focused on settling the large and small state dispute. Only after three fifths and trade compromises could be agreed upon over the major arguments was the constitution made a viable option, and then

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Northerners expected the African slave trade to dwindle and eventually become unnecessary, and they wanted the Constitution to reflect that expectation. Southerners only knew that they had an immediate and ongoing need for slave labor in their fields and paddies, so they resisted

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There would still be a bicameral legislature in congress, but instead the upper house, the House of Representatives, be provided proportional representation with every thirty thousand peoples equaling up to one representative. This suggestion was adopted from the Virginia plan, which pleased the large states. In the lower house, the Senate, the compromise was two representatives per state, despite population. This equal representation reflected the New Jersey plan, which pleased the smaller states. The Great Compromise fulfilled some of the requests from both proposed plans and was accepted

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The second one being the Three-Fifths compromise, a compromise that stated each slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of apportioning taxes and representation. Together a plan was developed that established three branches of national government- executive,

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The United States constitution has been named a bundle of compromises because the delegates to the Constitutional convention in 1787 had to compromise on many different main ideas in order to establish a new enhanced constitution that is suitable to each of states. Two compromises that had a significant impact on American society and made the United States constitution become a reality are The Great Compromise and the Three-Fifths Compromise. The moral issue is the lack of representation in Congress. Representation in Congress was dealt with at the Constitutional Convention and has had significant impact on American society. Thus leading to the topic The Great Compromise.

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The Northern states, smaller in comparison to the south, already did not have as much representation and political power as the southern states. Therefore, the compromise to them was unnecessary, and they felt they would have all the power and dominate in the polls and decisions. Considering the different views the two already had based on slavery, this alarmed the northern states. However, as time passed, the Three-Fifths Compromise would not provide the advantage the slave owning south had hoped. The Northern states grew more rapidly in terms of population and ended up being opposing political power to others.

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After the countless debates, the Great Compromise was what the convention would come into agreement with representation by population in the House of Representatives “The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one Representative. ”(add footnote) The smaller states were pleased with equal representation in the Senate “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senates from each state and each Senator shall have one vote.”(add

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People thought this was unfair, until the Virginia Plan took place which allowed for the smaller states with bigger populations. Another issue was that finally when each state got a certain amount of representatives based off of their population, the southern states wanted their slaves to count as people, allowing for them to be given more representatives. This was solved with the three-fifths compromise allowing for slaves to count as 3/5’s of a person. 9. Why did Antifederalists oppose the Constitution?

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The ⅗ Compromise was a solution to a conflict between the United States northern and southern states in 1787. The conflict was whether or not enslaved people would be counted as representing a whole person when it came to representation in the Electoral College and the House of Representatives in Congress. It was decided that each slave would represent ⅗ of the value of a free person. The impact of this compromise was that it temporarily solved a problem that could have kept our country from moving forward as a new nation. The ⅗ Compromise allowed our country to ratify the US Constitution in 1790 but also pointed out the great flaw of slavery in our nation and opened our eyes to the reality of slavery and how the slaves weren’t treated like ⅗ of a person at all.

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The larger states in the colonies believed that a state’s representation should be based on the size of their population. The smaller states, however, believed all states should have equal representation. The Great Compromise found a middle ground to allow all states to be fairly represented. The lower house, the house of representatives, had representation that was proportional to a state’s population size.

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Conflict over whether to count slaves in the new lower house became the new controversy among the Americans and further raised the question of the moral issues with slavery. Slave owners in the south were insisted on keeping slavery and having them represented in house. Because slaves were also looked at as property, the question of representation seemed unfounded to those that opposed the slave trade. Because most southern states had large plantations that required human labor and the lack of advanced technology, the thought of ending slavery would negatively affect their production. Northern states didn’t have the same issues in fact, the North relied more on their technological advances so they didn’t see the necessity in slavery.

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