Bedford County Public Schools
LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE
Course
U.S. History
Lesson Topic/Title
Grade
11
The Constitutional Convention - Three-Fifths Compromise
SOL and Learning Intention VUS 5:
The student will demonstrate knowledge of the issues involved in the creation
and ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America and how the principles of limited
government, consent of the governed, and the social contract are embodied in it by
b) identifying the major compromises necessary to produce the Constitution, and the roles of James Madison
and George Washington.
Materials/Resources Needed
Teacher Materials
o Prompts for discussing images (Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States from
http://www.gisforhistory.org/projects/firstcensus_st/
o Multiple Choice questions to include in unit assessment
o Essay Question to include in unit assessment
o LCD projector and computer with web access for www.gisforhistory.org
o Document: Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States
Student Materials
o Computer lab with web access for www.gisforhistory.org
o All documents and Activity Packets can be found at www.gisforhistory.org
o
o
o
o
o
Document: “Debates Within the Constitutional Convention” Annotation
Document: “The Three-Fifths Compromise” Annotation
Activity Packet 1 - handout
Activity Packet 2 - handout
Calculator
Cognition Strategy to be Applied
Lesson
Compone
nt
Engage:
Prior
Knowledg
e & Hook
Explain:
Direct
Instructio
Teacher
o View Scene at the Signing of the
Constitution of the United States from
http://www.gisforhistory.org/projects/fi
rstcensus_st/
o
o
Review basic terms from Ch. 5, Section 1,
p. 144
Emphasize that the founders actually
Student
o Discuss observations, inferences, &
questions about the painting (see Prompts
for Discussing Images).
n&
Model
Explore:
Guided
Practice
created a republic, not a true democracy
Teacher led discussion of answers to Activity
Packet 1
o Read “Debates Within the Constitutional
Convention” annotation from
http://www.gisforhistory.org/projects/firstc
ensus_st/
o Answer the handout Comprehension
Questions in Activity Packet 1
o
Students use the 1790 census data map to
answer Data Collection questions in Activity
Packet 1( map found at
http://www.gisforhistory.org/projects/firstc
ensus_st/ )
Explore:
Guided
Practice
Teacher led discussion of answers to Activity
Packet 2
o Read “The Three-Fifths Compromise”
annotation from
http://www.gisforhistory.org/projects/firstc
ensus_st/
o Answer Comprehension Questions in
Activity Packet 2
o
Students use the 1790 census data map to
answer Data Collection questions in Activity
Packet 2( map found at
http://www.gisforhistory.org/projects/firstc
ensus_st/ )
o
Evaluate:
Close and
Assess
o Include some of the multiple choice
questions provided on the Constitution
Unit test.
o Include a Representative essay question on
the Constitution Unit test.
FIRST CENSUS TEACHER MATERIALS
Prompts for Discussing Images
• What is the first thing you notice when you look at this image?
• What else catches your eye?
• How would you describe the people in this image?
• Where are they?
• What are they doing?
• How can you tell?
• When do you think this image was made?
• Any other observations?
• What questions do you have?
“Debates Within the Constitutional Convention” annotation
Author: Pierce Butler
For three and a half months during a hot, muggy Philadelphia summer, the delegates debated remarkably
sensitive issues: among them were whether the national government should be allowed to veto state laws
and whether the states should be eliminated altogether. To encourage the delegates to speak candidly,
the Constitutional Convention took extraordinary steps to insure secrecy. Sentries were posted at the
doors of Independence Hall, and no copies of the journal were permitted. Delegates were urged to burn
their notes.
Nevertheless, some of the notes kept by delegates survive, including those of Pierce Butler (1744-1822)
of South Carolina. Here, Butler, a wealthy planter who was also a champion of backcountry interests in
South Carolina (calling for greater representation for western interests and moving the state capital
westward) summarizes a plan for the new government presented by delegates from Virginia. The Virginia
Plan, written by James Madison but presented by Edmund Randolph (1753-1813), proposed a national
legislature divided into two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Voters in each state
would elect members of the House of Representatives. Under the Virginia Plan, population would
determine the number of representatives a state would have in the House.
Under Madison's plan, the House of Representatives would select members of the Senate from candidates
suggested by state legislatures. The House would also choose members of the judiciary and a President,
who would serve for seven years. Congress would have the power to override state legislation.
Many delegates objected to the authority over state laws that the Virginia Plan gave Congress. Delegates
from small states protested that the plan would give larger states too much power in the national
government. New Jersey proposed that all states have an equal number of representatives. Under the
New Jersey Plan, which strongly resembled the government under the Articles of Confederation, Congress
would consist of only one house, to be elected by the state legislatures, not directly by the people.
Delegates rejected both the Virginia and New Jersey plans. Connecticut delegates offered a compromise
proposal that became known as the Connecticut Compromise or the Great Compromise. Like the Virginia
Plan, it provided for a Congress with two houses. This plan provided for equal state representation in the
Senate, along with representation in proportion to population in the House of Representatives. Voters in
each state would elect members of the House of Representatives to two-year terms, while state
legislatures would choose senators for six-year terms.
To foster rational debate and to insure that the people would elect representatives whose outlook
transcended narrow local interests, the convention kept the House of Representatives small. The first
House had only 65 members, fewer than many state legislatures, which meant that representatives had to
win support from large constituencies.
The First Census
ACTIVITY PACKET 1
Comprehension Questions: Read the Annotation section of “Debates Within the
Constitutional Convention” (DOCUMENTS) and answer the following questions:
1. Where did the Constitutional Convention take place?
2. Under the Virginia Plan, what would have determined the number of representatives a
state would have in the House?
3. Why did New Jersey propose that all states should have an equal number of
representatives?
4. What former plan for American government did the New Jersey Plan most resemble?
5. How did the Great Compromise combine elements from both the New Jersey and the
Virginia Plan?
Data Collection Questions: Use gishistory.org/projects/representation to answer
the following questions:
6. Which were the 4 largest and 2 smallest states in terms of Total Population?
Largest Population States
STATE TOTAL POPULATION
Smallest Population States
STATE TOTAL POPULATION
7. Based on the data you have just gathered and the information you learned from
“Debates Within the Constitutional Convention,” which states do you think would have
Supported the New Jersey Plan? Explain your reasoning.
Title: The Three-Fifth Compromise annotation
The Constitution was a document based upon compromise: between larger and smaller states, between
proponents of a strong central government and those who favored strong state governments, and, above
all, between northern and southern states. Of all the compromises on which the Constitution rested,
perhaps the most controversial was the Three-Fifths Compromise, an agreement to count three-fifths of a
state's slaves in apportioning Representatives, Presidential electors, and direct taxes.
The three-fifths figure was the outgrowth of a debate that had taken place within the Continental
Congress in 1783. The Articles of Confederation had apportioned taxes not according to population but
according to land values. The states consistently undervalued their land in order to reduce their tax
burden. To rectify this situation, a special committee recommended apportioning taxes by population. The
Continental Congress debated the ratio of slaves to free persons at great length. Northerners favored a 4to-3 ratio, while southerners favored a 2-to-1 or 4-to-1 ratio. Finally, James Madison suggested a
compromise: a 5-to-3 ratio. All but two states--New Hampshire and Rhode Island--approved this
recommendation. But because the Articles of Confederation required unanimous agreement, the proposal
was defeated. When the Constitutional Convention met in 1787, it adopted Madison's earlier suggestion.
The taxes that the Three-Fifths Compromise dealt with were "direct" taxes, as opposed to excise or import
taxes. It was not until 1798 that Congress imposed the first genuine direct taxes in American history: a
tax on dwelling-houses and a tax on slaves aged 12 to 50.
The Three-Fifths Compromise greatly augmented southern political power. In the Continental Congress,
where each state had an equal vote, there were only five states in which slavery was a major institution.
Thus the southern states had about 38 percent of the seats in the Continental Congress. Because of the
1787 Three-Fifths Compromise, the southern states had nearly 45 percent of the seats in the first U.S.
Congress, which took office in 1790.
It is ironic that it was a liberal northern delegate, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, who proposed the ThreeFifths Compromise, as a way to gain southern support for a new framework of government. Southern
states had wanted representation apportioned by population; after the Virginia Plan was rejected, the
Three-Fifths Compromise seemed to guarantee that the South would be strongly represented in the House
of Representatives and would have disproportionate power in electing Presidents.
Over the long term, the Three-Fifths Compromise did not work as the South anticipated. Since the
northern states grew more rapidly than the South, by 1820, southern representation in the House had
fallen to 42 percent. Nevertheless, from Jefferson's election as President in 1800 to the 1850s, the threefifths rule would help to elect slaveholding Presidents. Southern political power increasingly depended on
the Senate, the President, and the admission of new slaveholding states.
ACTIVITY PACKET 2
Comprehension Questions: Read the Annotation section of “The Three-Fifths
Compromise” (DOCUMENTS) and answer the following questions:
8. Why was the Three-Fifths Compromise so controversial?
9. Why was the 3/5ths Compromise defeated in 1783 under the Articles of Confederation?
10. The 3/5ths Compromise greatly increased the power of what sort of states?
11. By how much did Southern representation in Congress increase between 1782 and
1790?
12. How did the 3/5ths Compromise affect Presidential elections in the early 1800s?
Data Collection Questions: Use gishistory.org/projects/representation to answer
the following questions:
13. Which 2 states had the largest enslaved population?
Largest Enslaved Population
STATE ENSLAVED POPULATION
14. Based on your observations from the map, in which states do you think slavery was
illegal?
Slavery Illegal?
STATE ENSLAVED POPULATION
Calculating the 3/5th Compromise
Use Data Entry Forms A & B below to calculate the number of additional seats that
Virginia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts would have gained as a result
of the Three-Fifths Compromise.
Data Entry Form A
Collect the relevant data from the GIS map in order to complete this form for each state listed below.
TOTAL
POPULATION
ENSLAVED
POPULATION
FREE PERSONS
(Total – Enslaved)
COMPROMISE
ENSLAVED POP.
(3/5 x Enslaved Pop.)
Virginia
South Carolina
Pennsylvania
Massachusetts
Data Entry Form B
Divide the relevant numbers from Form A by 34,650 in order to complete this next form.
Approximately how many seats would each state have in Congress (determine for each state listed below) …
… if Total Population counted for Representation?
… if only Free Persons counted for Representation?
… if Free Persons + Compromise Enslaved Population counted for Representation?
Virginia
South Carolina
Pennsylvania
Massachusetts
Data Interpretation
15. Which Congressional representation scenario from Data Entry Form B would have
benefited Virginia and South Carolina the most?
16. Which Congressional representation scenario from Data Entry Form B would have
benefited Pennsylvania and Massachusetts the most?
17. Why you think all four states agreed to the 3/5ths Compromise?
FIRST CENSUS TEACHER MATERIALS
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Where did the Constitutional Convention take place?
a. Boston, Massachusetts
b. Charleston, South Carolina
c. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
d. Richmond, Virginia
2. Under this plan, representatives to Congress would all have been elected in
proportion to the population.
a. New Jersey Plan
b. Marshall Plan
c. Virginia Plan
d. Anaconda Plan
3. Under this plan, every state had an equal vote, ensuring that smaller states could
not be overpowered by more populous ones.
a. New Jersey Plan
b. Marshall Plan
c. Virginia Plan
d. Anaconda Plan
4. The New Jersey Plan was very similar to:
a. The Declaration of Independence
b. The English Bill of Rights
c. The Articles of Confederation
d. The Canadian Constitution
5. True or False? The Great Compromise created a two-house Congress, with one
house based on the Virginia Plan & the other house based on the New Jersey Plan.
a. True
b. False
6. In 1790, which state was the largest in terms of total population and enslaved
population?
a. Rhode Island
b. Virginia
c. Massachusetts
d. South Carolina
7. In 1790, the population of which state was nearly half slave?
a. Rhode Island
b. Virginia
c. Massachusetts
d. South Carolina
8. True or False? Under the Articles of Confederation, all thirteen states had to
approve of the 3/5ths Compromise in order for it to become law.
a. True
b. False
9. The 3/5ths Compromise was most beneficial to states from which region of the
United States?
a. North
b. South
c. West
10. By how much did Southern representation in Congress increase between 1782 and
1790, thanks to the 3/5ths Compromise?
a. 7%
b. 38%
c. 42%
The First Census
Representation Essay Question
How did the Three-Fifths Compromise address the issue of whether enslaved
population should be included to determine state representation? Do you think this
was a good solution? Why or why not?