Which issue was at the heart of one of the compromises made between northern and southern states during the constitutional convention of 1787?

western land claims

counting slaves in the population

allowing new states into the union

regulation of interstate commerce

The correct answer is counting slaves in the population.

Counting slaves became a significant issue as it dealt with states representation in the House of Representatives. Many of the Northern politicians did not want slaves to count towards the population, as it would give the slave states more power in the House of Representatives. At the same time, the Southern politicians wanted to count slaves towards the population even though they did not possess any legal rights at this time.

To solve this problem, the members of the Constitutional Convention developed the 3/5ths Compromise. This compromise stated that for every 5 slaves, 3 of them would count towards a states population.

c holding free elections