Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States ... that a compromise had already occurred behind the scenes. By itself, however, the three-fifths compromise for ...

there was also an indication of northern reluctance to see the extension of southern political advantage by inflated representation (tied to the three-fifths compromise of the federal Constitution).

Delegates in the northern and southern states reached the three-fifths compromise agreement at the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787, which helped assign seats in the U.S. House of ...