The 3/5ths compromise said that 3/5ths of all slaves would count as free white men for the state population count. This was very unfair as most northern states had very little slaves compared to the Southern states. More people counting towards a states population meant more people representing that state in congress. The great compromise stated that the lower house's number of reps would be based on population of a state and the upper house would be based on equal representation for each state. The northern states didn't like this as they had less people in their states and wanted equal representation so that they wouldn't always be outnumbered by the southern states. The Southern states wanted the opposite.
