Under the three-fifths compromise in the 1787 Constitution, each slave was to be counted as three-fifths of a person. Article 1, section 2, stipulated that "the representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states ... according to their respective numbers ... which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to serve for a term of years [white servants], and excluding Indians not subject to taxation, three-fifths of all other persons".
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