Skill 2: Summarize how the Missouri Compromise temporarily settled debate over slavery.
The Missouri Compromise
The institution of slavery had been a divisive issue in the United States for decades before the territory of Missouri petitioned Congress admission to the Union as a state in 1818. Until 1818, there was an even balance of ten free states and ten slave states. The government then admitted Illinois as the 11th free state in 1818. Southerners assumed Missouri would be admitted as a slave state, to keep the balance of power. Instead, Congressman James Tallmadge amended the Missouri statehood bill to require Missouri to gradually free its slaves. Southerner's saw this as a threat to their power and stopped the passing of the bill. Alabama was then admitted into the Union as a slave state. Once again the balance of power had returned.
Arguments arose as the South accused the North of trying to end slavery and the North accused the South of trying to spread slavery into the western territories. Predicting war, Congress temporarily ended the crisis with a series of agreements that became known as the Missouri Compromise. This involved Maine being admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. The rest of the Louisiana territory was split into two sections - one for the slaveholders and the other for free settlers. The divide line was at 36.30 north latitude. The Missouri Compromise states that all the Louisiana Purchase territory north of the divide line, except Missouri, would be free, and the territory below that line wouldn't. Eventually the Missouri Compromise was repealed due to the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, and then later declared unconstitutional by Dred Scott in 1857.
Arguments arose as the South accused the North of trying to end slavery and the North accused the South of trying to spread slavery into the western territories. Predicting war, Congress temporarily ended the crisis with a series of agreements that became known as the Missouri Compromise. This involved Maine being admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. The rest of the Louisiana territory was split into two sections - one for the slaveholders and the other for free settlers. The divide line was at 36.30 north latitude. The Missouri Compromise states that all the Louisiana Purchase territory north of the divide line, except Missouri, would be free, and the territory below that line wouldn't. Eventually the Missouri Compromise was repealed due to the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, and then later declared unconstitutional by Dred Scott in 1857.