Constitutional Convention: The Three-Fifths Compromise

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One other controversial topic at the Constitutional Convention was the slaves. A compromise was made called the Three-Fifths Compromise. This was presented by Roger Sherman and James Wilson on July 12, 1787. The argument was whether slaves should be counted as population or property. One component of the plan was that every three of five slaves counted towards a state’s population. The smaller states had lots of slaves and wanted them to count as population because it would add lots of number to their population. The larger states, however, wanted the slaves to count as taxes because then they wouldn’t have to pay very much money since they didn’t have very many slaves. This plan was better than the Articles of Confederation because the smaller