Login or Sign Up

Ask a New Question

Why did these states want slaves counted toward state population size?

Slave states argued that their slaves should count toward their population when calculating representation in Congress

Did you know?

Did you know that certain states in the past wanted to include slaves in their population count? This was primarily because it would increase their representation in the House of Representatives and therefore give them more political power. The Three-Fifths Compromise was a decision made during the drafting of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, which stated that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of determining state population size. This practice allowed states with large slave populations to have a greater number of representatives in Congress, even though slaves themselves were denied voting rights. This compromise shows how the issue of slavery was intricately linked with political power and representation in the early years of the United States.