Reasons for the Three-Fifths Compromise

In Philadelphia (From L–R): the Old City Hall, where the Supreme Court sat from 1790 until 1800; Independence Hall, where the Constitution was written; and Congress Hall, where Congress sat from 1790 until 1800, while the city was the capital of the United States. MPI/Getty Images

When arguing that the Constitution stems from, and continues to reflect, “systemic racism,” critics point to Article I, Section 2, Clause 3—the “three-fifths compromise.”  They do so even though the three-fifths compromise was amended out of the document more than 150 years ago.

By way of illustration, a 2011 Time magazine cover story asserted, “The framers ... gave us the idea that a black person was three-fifths of a human being.” In 2021, Time doubled down with a column stating that “the Constitution defined African-Americans as only three-fifths of a person.” Similarly, a Teen Vogue item misinformed its young readers with these words: