They were going to be counted as 1/3 of a person.
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Slaves were to be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of apportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, as per the Three-Fifths Compromise included in the United States Constitution. This compromise was included during the Constitutional Convention in 1787 as a way to balance the interests of states with differing numbers of enslaved individuals.
In the United States, slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation in the House of Representatives according to the Three-Fifths Compromise in the Constitution. This practice was in place from 1787 until the abolition of slavery after the Civil War.
Southern states wanted slaves to be counted in a state's population because it would increase their representation in the House of Representatives and thus give them more political power. This was due to the Three-Fifths Compromise in the U.S. Constitution, which counted each slave as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation.
Actually it would have been helpful to have each slave counted as a full person because that would have meant more representatives in Congress. It was the northern colonies that didn't want the slaves counted as whole person. The south all ready had the largest States and to add the slave population in would have made them very powerful. By 1860 there would be 6 million slaves in the south so counting them as 3/4ths of a person wasn't great, but better than counting them as a whole person.
The Southern states in the United States wanted slaves to count in their total population for representation in Congress. This led to the Three-Fifths Compromise in the Constitution, where slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of determining representation in the House of Representatives.
The Three-Fifths Compromise, settled on in 1787, determined that slaves would count as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation and taxation. This decision was a contentious compromise between states with varying numbers of slaves and helped shape the balance of power between states in the federal government.