What 1787 constitutional agreement counted three-fifths of each enslaved state’s enslaved population for representation?

The 1787 constitutional agreement that counted three-fifths of each enslaved state’s enslaved population for representation was the Three-Fifths Compromise.

Delegates debated the issue during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Southern delegates wanted enslaved people included in population totals used to determine representation, while many Northern delegates opposed counting people who were denied political rights. The compromise counted “all other persons” as three-fifths of their actual number for representation and certain direct-tax calculations.

The formula affected the allocation of seats in the House of Representatives and the number of Electoral College votes. It therefore increased the political power of slaveholding states compared with a system that excluded enslaved people entirely, although it gave those states less power than full counting would have done. Enslaved people themselves received no voting rights from the provision.

The compromise was written into Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, replaced the formula by requiring representation to be based on the whole number of persons in each state.