Social Sciences and History / Unit 1 SSH 0020 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Convention's Three Compromises
The idea
Delegates from twelve states met in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven to revise the Articles and instead wrote a new constitution, the oldest written national constitution still in force. Three compromises made it possible, and the exam asks what each one traded. The Connecticut Compromise, Roger Sherman's proposal, settled representation: an upper house with equal votes for every state, a lower house apportioned by population. The three-fifths compromise settled how enslaved people would count toward that population: three of every five, for representation and taxation together. The Electoral College settled how the president would be chosen: by electors allotted to each state by its representation, not by direct popular vote.
In practice
To place a compromise, ask which fear it answered. Small states feared being outvoted, so they got the equal Senate. Southern states wanted their enslaved population counted for seats, northern states did not, so the count was split. Delegates who distrusted majority rule wanted a filter between voters and the presidency, so electors filter the choice. Then ask who gained: the equal Senate favored small states, the three-fifths count favored slaveholding states, the College favored those who feared democracy.
Where people slip
The three-fifths compromise did not make an enslaved person three-fifths of a citizen in law. It counted people who could not vote toward the power of those who could.
Your place on the trail
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