History Day - Debate and Diplomacy

Roger Sherman and The Connecticut Compromise or the Great Compromise

The Great Compromise created the dual system (bicameral) of state representation in U.S. Congress. It is also called the Connecticut Compromise because Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth were Connecticut's delegates. The compromise addressed disputes between larger and smaller states - with the Senate having two members from each state and the House of Representatives having representation based on population. In determining how to count population, the Three-Fifths Compromise said three-fifths of each state's population of enslave people would be counted for representation - this ratio came from the Confederation Congress when figuring national tax.[1]

The Virginia Plan was another one discussed, where representation in both chambers/houses would be based on population. The New Jersey plan called for one house with equal representation from each state.

See our guides on the U.S. Constitution as well.

Books, Documents, etc.

Other Institutions

Lesson Plans

References

1. Ohline, Howard A. “Republicanism and Slavery: Origins of the Three-Fifths Clause in the United States Constitution.” The William and Mary Quarterly 28, no. 4 (1971): 563–84. https://doi.org/10.2307/1922187.