The Importance Of The Three-Fifth Clause

The Three-Fifth clause is a compromise that said for every five slaves, three of them would count towards the state’s population. The Three-Fifth clause conference was held at the United States Constitutional Convention in the year 1787 and was enforced in states that allowed slavery. The reason for the Three-Fifth clause is because the states had to figure out a system of representation and didn’t know how to count the slaves. The Northern states didn’t want the slaves to be counted towards the population because the slaves were seen as property in the Southern states and the Northern states were concerned that if the Southern states had too many representatives, they would be able to out vote the North on many issues including slavery and
put more tax burdens on them. The Southern states wanted the slaves to be counted towards the population because then they would have more representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. The historical significance of the Three-Fifth clause is that it gave Southern states a bigger say in government and lead to the revolution of slavery.