How do the Great Compromise and the Three-Fifths Compromise relate to population?

The Great Compromise and the Three-Fifths Compromise are both related to population in the context of how political representation and taxation were determined in the early United States.

The Great Compromise, also known as the Connecticut Compromise, was an agreement reached during the Constitutional Convention in 1787. It addressed a conflict between small and large states regarding representation in the newly proposed government. The larger states wanted representation based on population, while the smaller states demanded equal representation regardless of population size. The Great Compromise resulted in a bicameral legislature with two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. In the House, representation would be based on the population of each state, meaning states with larger populations would have more representatives. In the Senate, each state would have two senators, ensuring equal representation for each state, regardless of its population size.

The Three-Fifths Compromise was another agreement reached during the Constitutional Convention. It dealt with how slaves would be counted towards a state's population for both representation and taxation purposes. Southern states, where the slave population was significant, wanted slaves to be counted in full for representation in the House of Representatives but not for taxation. Northern states, on the other hand, objected to slaves being counted as full persons for representation since they were not considered citizens with rights. The compromise agreed that each slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person for both the allocation of seats in the House and for federal taxation purposes. This had a profound impact on political power, as it effectively increased the representation of slaveholding states in the House of Representatives without requiring them to provide full rights to their slave population.