The Three-Fifths Compromise counted three out of every five enslaved individuals for purposes of representation in Congress, though they could not vote. This compromise, reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, was designed to balance the interests of slaveholding states with those of free states in determining how representation in the House of Representatives would be allocated. It effectively increased the political power of slaveholding states by giving them more representatives based on their enslaved populations, despite those individuals not having the right to vote.
How did the Three-Fifths Compromise affect representation in Congress?
It granted enslaved people full citizenship
It excluded enslaved individuals entirely.
It counted three out of every five enslaved individuals, though they could not vote.
It allowed only free citizens to vote.
1 answer
1 answer