Congress adopts the three-fifths ratio for taxation
- When
- April 18, 1783
- Where
- Location not specified in supplied sources
On April 18, 1783, Congress settled on a three-fifths ratio for counting enslaved persons after rejecting one-half and three-fourths proposals.
The three-fifths ratio originated with an amendment proposed to the Articles of Confederation on April 18, 1783. A committee of the Congress had suggested that taxes be supplied in proportion to inhabitants of every age, sex, and quality, except Indians not paying taxes. After compromises of one-half by Benjamin Harrison of Virginia and three-fourths by several New Englanders failed, Congress settled on the three-fifths ratio proposed by James Madison, agreed to by eight states to two. The supplied passages do not specify where Congress met when it adopted this amendment.
Sources
- Three-fifths Compromise Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-22
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.