True.
The South wanted to count slaves as full persons but the North insisted on counting slaves as zero. The respective arguments were to both sides’ economic and political best self interest. It is possible that if the South's nascent attempt to view slaves as full human beings had been encouraged the North's perceived need to later attack and destroy their regional rivals could have been avoided.
But the North insisted so the South - as they would do many times to preserve the Union created by Washington, Lee, Jefferson, Madison, Mason - agreed to the 3/5 compromise which harmed their (South's) best self interests.
LOL! There was no "nascent attempt" to view slaves as humans. Just a crass political ploy to obtain more power in government than their population called for. As it was, they settled for half a loaf. Or rather 3/5ths of one. Not the first compromise the North made to try and satisfy the South, but one of the few the South would accept.