djplong, the story of the three states you mentioned is really a very important part of American history. The three states were Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

To make a long story short, when the Constitution was first being framed, there were more blacks in these states than whites. The Constitution sets out the way the US House of Representatives members are elected based on population. For every 30,000 residents you get one Representative in Congress.

When the delegates from the anti-slavery states realized these three pro-slavery states are counting their blacks and they will have a large number of Representatives, the delegates from the anti-slavery states say in order to be counted, the population must be free. Otherwise they are property.

The debate goes back and forth and the anti-slavery states delegates say, okay, if you count property so will we. We will count horses, tables, cattle....you get the point.

There was finally an agreement called the Three-fifths Compromise which is in Article I, Section 2 of the US Constitution. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

It cut the pro-slavery state's representation in half thus making it harder to get a proslavery voice in Congress.

The original Declaration of Independence was going to say, Life, Liberty and Property. Because of this 3/5 Compromise and the debate over slaves as property or counting them for representation, it was changed to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

It was based on the first and second article of the Virginia Declaration of Rights adopted unanimously by the Virginia Convention of Delegates on June 12, 1776 and written by George Mason:

That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.


We all now know what was adoped and we should know why: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

PS, I actually learned part of this from earlier episodes of Beck's Founders' Friday shows and part from one of my brothers who collects original copies of Bibles and history books. (And he reads them.)

U.S. Constitution
Article I
Section 1.
All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Section 2.
The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature.

No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.


http://topics.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlei