OK! So I am sure you know all about the big states vs. little states. Well, Virginia wanted to have even more electives/representatives for their state in the government. They wanted to count the slaves as "people" too. The smaller states with little slave population in the north disagreed. They said that if they were to be counted as people, they might as well be treated like them too. The 3-5ths compromise made each slave count as 3/5 of a person OR for every 5,000 slaves, 3,000 would be counted and on that ratio. This kind of settled the debate, but it was still very morally wrong in today's common sense. Glad to help!
