Southern states had a plethora of slaves while the northern states had little to none. Virginia was one of the southern states and they fully insisted on having them count towards the total population because at the time their slave population reached almost 300,000. Massachusetts a northern state was on the complete other end with zero slaves total due to their anti-slave policy so they felt it would be incredibly unfair to count slaves towards total population. To balance out both the states that had excess amounts of slaves, and no slaves at all, the Three-Fifths Compromise was formed. This compromise stated that only three-fifths of a state's slave population would be taken into consider for the total state population. Although this seems like a small compromise it still helped in allowing the delegates to quickly get the new Constitution
Southern states had a plethora of slaves while the northern states had little to none. Virginia was one of the southern states and they fully insisted on having them count towards the total population because at the time their slave population reached almost 300,000. Massachusetts a northern state was on the complete other end with zero slaves total due to their anti-slave policy so they felt it would be incredibly unfair to count slaves towards total population. To balance out both the states that had excess amounts of slaves, and no slaves at all, the Three-Fifths Compromise was formed. This compromise stated that only three-fifths of a state's slave population would be taken into consider for the total state population. Although this seems like a small compromise it still helped in allowing the delegates to quickly get the new Constitution