In 1787, politicians at the Constitutional Convention created two compromises to address the population gap between the North and South (PN 187). Since representation in the House of Representatives depended on population, the Northern states received significantly more delegates due to the dramatically larger populations. In an effort to balance the representation in the House, the convention created the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted each slave as three-fifths of a person. In exchange, the South agreed to abolish the slave trade on January 1, 1808, which signaled the progressive, gradual decline of slavery in the South. The Compromise of 1787 successfully relieved sectional conflict until 1820, when tensions arose over the land acquired from the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.…