3/5 Compromise Analysis

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Southerner, Charles Pinckney exclaimed, "Blacks ought to stand on an equality with whites," when debating about the issue of how to count slaves in the population. Back in 1787 when the founding fathers sat down to write the U.S Constitution, the issue of how to count slaves in the population when determining how much representation each state would have was a major problem. Naturally, the Southerners wanted more representation and, if the slaves were counted, the Southern states would have more representation than if only white people were counted. However, the North disagreed. To settle this, several delegates proposed a compromise known as the 3/5 Compromise. The 3/5 Compromise was a compromise that involved different delegates, had two …show more content…

James Wilson was a delegate from Pennsylvania and a founding father who signed the Declaration of Independence. Additionally, he was a farmer, lawyer, and a leading legal theorist. His goal was to get the support of the Southern states on the idea of how to count slaves when determining representation, and the only way that he could do that was by compromising with them. Rodger Sherman, who was a delegate from Connecticut, was the other man who proposed the idea of the 3/5 Compromise. He was also a founding father and the only man to sign all four major U.S. documents. He wanted to have peace between the two different sides to the argument. These two men were determined to put an end to the argument of how to count slaves when determining how much representation each state would get. They were tenacious and strong-willed and they wanted to keep the peace in our nation. Therefore, they proposed the 3/5 Compromise which declared, "Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several states... according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free Persons... three fifths of all other Persons." However, before they could compromise they had to listen to the two different sides of the argument, the North and the …show more content…

One of the reasons that the convention decided to compromise on the idea was because they wanted to make sure that both sides were pleased. They did not want more chaos in the nation. All they wanted was to have peace in America, and compromising on ideas like this would help create it. Additionally, they wanted to make sure that each states tax burden would be fair. If they didn't count the slaves, then the North would be paying a majority of the taxes, and if they counted the slaves then the South would be paying an unfair amount of the taxes. This lead to a compromise so that each states’ tax burden would be fair and equal according to their different populations. Lastly, they wanted to create a compromise so that they could start trying to abolish slavery. Compromising like this meant that the South would have to stop the importation of slaves in 20 years. This would help the U.S be on its way to abolishing something that it began to morally question. Overall, the 3/5 Compromise helped keep peace in our nation. Even though Charles Pinckney did not get blacks to count the same as whites, he did help get the two sides to compromise on the idea. This was an important lesson that helped make America the country that it is

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