The Three-Fifths Compromise
                Southern delegates said that enslaved people should be counted in calculating how many reps a state should have in congress.  Northerners said that because enslaved people should not vote, they should not be counted towards a state's representation.
                 Finally, congress agreed to a plan called the three-fifths compromise.  Each enslaved would be counted  as three-fifths of a free person.  The compromise was a gain for the south, which got more seats in the house.  Northern delegates reluctantly agreed in order to keep the south in the union. 
                 The compromise was a blow to African Americans.  It helped pressure slavery in the new Constitution by making distinctions between free people, and all others.  It was overturned when slavery was banned in 1865.