ted for the purposes of representation, then all slaves would be counted for taxation. Southerners decided that they were willing to lower demands. By the three-fifths compromise it was agreed that three fifths of the number of slaves would be counted both for representation and for levying direct taxes. It unified the nation in a way because it allowed the slaves to vote for government. The 3/5 Compromise helped unify our country because it allowed the slaves and white men to come together and vote. Though they only counted as 3/5 of a person, it was something. It would be years the first time in history that slaves would be able to vote for government officials. One sectional interest in America was more sensitive and more explosive than all of the others, slavery. Unlike other economic issues, slavery was a great moral problem. In the days of the Founding Fathers, people presumed that slavery would eventually die out. The price of tobacco was so low that many plantation owners were finding the use and care of slaves unprofitable. But the cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney, soon changed their perspectives on slaves. Plantations would prosper if only they could find the workers to work, to plant, to cultivate, and to "gin" the cotton. Black slaves seemed the obvious labor supply, and slavery began to seem "necessary" for southern prosperity. At the same time planters were eager to get more land and began moving westward. Over 60,000 settlers had crossed the Mississippi and into the Missouri River. St. Louis was a bustling city and the center of western fur trade. Although most of the settlers in Missouri were from the states north of Ohio, where slavery was prohibited, there were some from slaveholding states. They had brought with them 10,000 slaves. When Missouri requested to be allowed to enter the Union, it opened up a heated debate whether or not the expansion of slavery would be allowed there. It was all a matter of power. If M...
