What was the 3/5s Compromise?

• A. For every 5 slaves, 3 counted toward the population
• B. For every slave, 5 counted toward population
• C. Slaves counted as neither property nor population
• D. Slaves counted as full population

Answer: (A)

This question tests how enslaved people were counted when determining a state's representation in Congress during the founding period. The Three-Fifths Compromise was an agreement reached in the 1787 Constitutional Convention that counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person for purposes of population figures used to apportion seats in the House of Representatives and for taxation. In practical terms, for every five enslaved individuals, three were added to a state's population count. This system was a compromise between Northern states, which argued enslaved people should not count for representation, and Southern states, which argued they should count fully since slavery increased their political power. The three-fifths rule was a way to balance those interests, giving enslaved people partial representation in government calculations while still recognizing their status as enslaved property in other contexts. The other options would either overcount or exclude enslaved people entirely from the population formula, which is not what the agreement established.