The difference being that women and children were not property, could not be bought and sold, and had rights and privileges that slaves did not.
It (counting slaves as whole persons) would have been a first step by the South, albeit a baby-step, towards recognizing the concept of racial equality. The North would have none of it.
Oh absolute utter nonsense. Recognizing slaves as a whole person for the purposes of congressional representation would have done nothing but increase the disproportionate representation of slave states in Congress at the expense of the free states. The suggestion that it might have led to blacks, free or slave, being recognized as equals is idiotic.
Had the South insisted on counting slaves as whole persons, the North would never have agreed to form our nation
Same with not counting them at all. Hence the compromise.
In hindsight, the South should have realized that the North was going to be trouble.
The North should have done likewise.
At the time the South was compromising on the 3/5ths provision, there were no free states.
And euphemistically calling northern slave states “free states” does not change anything.
It does help to explain why you so often misspeak.
You garble historical facts, make assumptions, and arrive at conclusions that can not be supported with formal documentation.