Three-Fifths Compromise on representation

On July 12, 1787, delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia adopted the three-fifths formula for apportioning representation and direct taxation. James Wilson of Pennsylvania and Roger Sherman of Connecticut supported a compromise under which three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted for seats in the House of Representatives. The vote joined slavery directly to the structure of the new national legislature.

The compromise addressed a political struggle between northern and southern delegates over whether enslaved people would increase the power of slaveholding states in Congress. Southern delegates wanted enslaved laborers counted for representation, while several northern delegates objected that states should not gain political power from people held in bondage. The July bargain therefore tied representation, taxation, and slavery together inside the Constitution itself.

The three-fifths formula entered Article I, Section 2 and shaped presidential elections as well as House apportionment for decades. Its political consequences lasted until the Civil War amendments, especially the Fourteenth Amendment, replaced the compromise after emancipation.