<P> The Three - Fifths Compromise was a compromise reached among state delegates during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention . Whether , and if so , how , slaves would be counted when determining a state 's total population for legislative representation and taxing purposes was important , as this population number would then be used to determine the number of seats that the state would have in the United States House of Representatives for the next ten years . The compromise solution was to count 3 out of every 5 slaves as a person for this purpose . Its effect was to give the southern states a third more seats in Congress and a third more electoral votes than if slaves had been ignored , but fewer than if slaves and free persons had been counted equally , thus allowing the slaveholder interests to largely dominate the government of the United States until 1861 . The compromise was proposed by delegates James Wilson and Roger Sherman . </P>
<P> The Three - Fifths Compromise was a compromise reached among state delegates during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention . Whether , and if so , how , slaves would be counted when determining a state 's total population for legislative representation and taxing purposes was important , as this population number would then be used to determine the number of seats that the state would have in the United States House of Representatives for the next ten years . The compromise solution was to count 3 out of every 5 slaves as a person for this purpose . Its effect was to give the southern states a third more seats in Congress and a third more electoral votes than if slaves had been ignored , but fewer than if slaves and free persons had been counted equally , thus allowing the slaveholder interests to largely dominate the government of the United States until 1861 . The compromise was proposed by delegates James Wilson and Roger Sherman . </P>
who came up with the three fifths compromise
who came up with the three fifths compromise
James Wilson Roger Sherman
James Wilson Roger Sherman