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The three-fifths compromise was a agreement reached at the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention that the slave population would only be counted at three-fifths (60%) of its actual size for apportionment and taxation purposes. The compromise is widely misunderstood as denying full humanity to African Americans, while it was actually supporters of slavery who advocated a full count, and anti-slavery persons who opposed slaves being counted.
The compomise for a partial enumeration of slaves ensured a disproportionate dominance of the Southern states over the Northern states for many decades.
Compromise
The three-fifths clause was proposed by Pennsylvanian delegate James Wilson as a compomise between Southern supporters and Northern opponents of the enumeration of slaves in the United States Census.
The three-fifths compromise is part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution:
- 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.
Since slaves could not vote, the benefit of counting any portion of the slave population for the purposes of apportionment fell to the slave-holding class. In other words, counting slaves as full persons would have increased the political power of the slave-holding states in the House of Representatives and in the U.S. Electoral College, which would naturally prevent of passage of legislation restricting the practice of slavery. The compromise also dealt with the issue of direct tax (as shown above), since slaves were considered property and taxable assets.
This ("free persons ... all other persons,") is one of only two rather indirect references to slavery in the original U.S. Constitution, the other being Limits on Congress, wherein "*he migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit," refers to the slave trade.
Effects
The three-fifths compromise proved the margin of victory for a number of Southern political successes. Most famously, Thomas Jefferson was dubbed the "Negro President", as his election was dependent on white Southerners benefitting from the partial enumeration of slaves. Also, via Andrew Jackson, the Trail of Tears would never have happened, nor would the ban on congress to discuss slavery have been put into effect. Also, the 1820 Missouri compromise would never have come into effect. While it is arguable that the 3/5ths compromise may have slowed the day that America came to blows with itself, via the Civil War, it is also arguable that the 3/5ths compromise caused most of the problems between the North and South.
In the 62 years between George Washington and the Compromise of 1850, slave holders held the presidency with the exceptions of John Adams and John Quincy Adams. They ruled all three branches of the government, via appointing southern judges, and having a majority in the senate or the congress or both.
Superceded
Following the Civil War and the abolition of slavery by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1865), the three-fifths clause was rendered moot. Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution 1868) later superseded Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3, which specifically stated that "Representatives shall be apportioned ...counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed"...
"Three-fifths compromise"