In debates leading up to the Three-Fifths Compromise, northern states argued that:  A. slaves should be able to buy their freed
om after working for a certain number of years.  B. southern states should only be allowed to send representatives to the House of Representatives, not to the Senate.  C. slaves should not be included when counting a state’s population to determine representation in Congress.  D. a strong federal government was necessary in order to ensure that slave states did not have an unfair economic advantage. ans is C
Northern states didn't have slaves. Southern states did and they wanted to count the slaves as part of the population to permit them to have more representatives in congress. However slaves had no say in anything and couldn't vote, so their representation in congress didn't exist. Representation was based on free citizens. Slaves were neither free nor citizens. They were property. But the southern states wouldn't ratify the constitution if they couldn't keep their slaves. The "compromise" was made that said that slaves were 3/5 of a human and so 3/5 of the slave population was factored into the representation of the southern slave-holding states. So the slavery issue was kicked down the road for 80 years and was resolved by Lincoln and the Civil War.
