The Three- Fifths Compromise

Ebony Paul

Group Website

Junior Division

Student Composed Words: 500 words

Process Paper: 463 words

Topic Idea:

Before I decided to work in a group for National History Day, I chose the topic about the
Connecticut Compromise. When I found my group members, Jade, Tyhisia, and Liana our solo
topics were around the same area. So as group we decided to do our National History Day
Project on the Three-Fifths Compromise. We chose it because it relates to this years National
History Day theme which is conflict and compromise. It relates to conflict and compromise by
how Northern and Southern states couldn’t figure out what to do with slaves so they come to a
common consensus which was to let slaves could as ⅗ people.

Research:
I did my research on the internet by finding information people wrote about the Three-
Fifths Compromise. I found many computer based sources. My group members and I also met up
at the library and read articles and books on the Three- Fifths Compromise. Many of the
computer based sources showed pictures of the United States Constitution which the Three-
Fifths Compromise was apart of.

Construction Process:
My group members and I decided to do a website to represent our National History Day
project. We met up at the library over vacation to work on the website. To create the website, we
went on Weebly.com. Weebly.com is known for being a site to create websites on, and it has
been used for National History Day before. We chose a design for the website and created pages
for each of us to work on. Then we reviewed it and our website was created also including our
annotated bibliography.

Relation to Theme:
The Three-Fifths clause was part of a series of compromises enacted by the
Constitutional Convention of 1787. With the convection seemingly at an impasse Charles
Pinckey proposed a compromise : “Three-Fifths of the number of slaves in any particular state
would be added to the total number of free white persons, including bond servants, but not
Indians, to the estimated number of congressmen each state would send to the House of
Representatives.” The Three-Fifths Compromise was presented at the Constitutional
Convention, which was a meeting of state whose delegates were formulating plans for the
National government. There were many disputes over the proposals between the large and small
states. One of the major disputes was over the issue of apportionment, which related to the
method of distributing and allotting the seats in the House of Representatives based on
population. Delegates James Wilson and Roger Sherman proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise
that counted every five slaves as three individuals in terms of the apportionment of
representation and taxes. This is how the Three-Fifths Compromise was a turning point in
history.