Three-Fifths Compromise Gives Slaveholders Massive Extra Political Power

Delegates at the Constitutional Convention reach agreement on the Three-Fifths Compromise, proposed by James Wilson of Pennsylvania and seconded by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, establishing that enslaved people will be counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of congressional representation and Electoral College votes. The compromise resolves a deadlock between southern states demanding their entire enslaved population be counted for representation (while denying enslaved people any rights or voting power) and northern states wanting to exclude enslaved people entirely from representation counts. Southern delegates threaten to abandon the Convention entirely if enslaved people are not counted, creating pressure for a corrupt bargain that fundamentally distorts American democracy for the next 78 years.

The Three-Fifths Compromise represents institutional capture of democratic representation by slaveholding elites who gain massive political advantages through owning human beings. By 1793, slaveholding states have 47 congressmen but would have only 33 without the compromise—a 42 percent increase in political power derived solely from enslaving people who cannot vote, own property, or exercise any political rights. This corrupted representation extends to the Electoral College, giving slaveholding states disproportionate presidential election influence: Virginia controls one-quarter of electoral votes needed to win the presidency despite 200,000 disenfranchised enslaved people inflating its count, and after the 1800 Census Pennsylvania’s free population is 10 percent larger than Virginia’s yet receives 20 percent fewer electoral votes. The compromise adds 13 extra House members and 18 additional electors to slave states’ political power.

The Three-Fifths Compromise transforms slavery from a state-level institution into a structural corruption embedded in federal governance, creating perverse incentives where political power increases with the number of people enslaved. Thomas Jefferson defeats John Adams in the pivotal 1800 election solely due to extra electoral votes from enslaved people who he and other Virginia slaveholders keep in bondage—without the Three-Fifths Compromise, abolitionist Adams would have won. The compromise ensures slaveholders dominate the presidency (32 of the first 36 years are controlled by Virginia slaveholders), House speakership, and Supreme Court appointments throughout the antebellum period. This constitutional design flaw exemplifies kakistocracy: a governance system structurally rigged to amplify elite economic interests (slavery) over human rights and genuine democratic representation, embedding corruption so deeply that only Civil War and constitutional amendments can dislodge it.