On: Contradictions in Roman law left incurable headach...

[Mirioron]

Wasn't the 3/5 compromise rather a way to curb the power of slave owners? The more slaves they had the more power the votes of the state had.

[monocasa → Mirioron]

It was well named as a compromise. One of the possible alternatives was that slaves didn't count at all, not really being full people in the eyes of society. Then the slave owning states wouldn't have had nearly as much federal representation.