three-fifth law?

Question

why was the three-fifth lawcalled that and why did they choose 3-5 and not like one-half or any other number

Answer 1

The Three-Fifths Compromise was a compromise between Southern and Northern states reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention that declared a slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person for enumeration purposes regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives. It was proposed by delegate James Wilson.

Northern delegates generally wished to count only the free inhabitants of each state. Southern delegates to the Constitutional Convention, on the other hand, generally wanted to count slaves at their actual numbers. Since slaves could not vote, Southern slaveholders would thus have the benefit of increased representation in the House and Electoral College (taxation was only a secondary issue). The final compromise of counting slaves as only three fifths of their actual numbers reduced the power of the slave states but is still generally credited with giving the pro-slavery forces disproportionate political power in the U.S. government from the establishment of the Constitution until the Civil War.[citation needed]

The three-fifths compromise is found in Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution:

"Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons."

Answer 2

It was a compromise that said that slaves counted as 3/5 of a person for the purposes of Congressional representation. The issue at hand was Congressional districting and representation -- POWER.

Obviously, the slave states had a vested interest in gaining representation, and the 3/5 rule gave them more Representatives for the House.

However, in all fairness, racism was the common, "educated" view of the day, and parties on both sided didn't view black African slaves as full human beings. Parties from both slave and free states loathed the idea -- if it occurred to them at all -- that black people were fully human (ditto for native Americans).

Why 3/5 instead of some other number? Because that was the best "deal" that could be struck.......