Compromise of 1850
Antebellum slavery legislation
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills passed by the U.S.
Congress attempting to settle disputes over slavery in territories acquired from Mexico.
California entered as a free state; Texas received debt relief; the slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C.; and a stricter Fugitive Slave Act was enacted.
The compromise delayed civil war for a decade but satisfied neither side.
The Compromise of 1850 temporarily eased sectional tensions.
- Daniel WebsterStatesman and constitutional lawyer
- Fugitive Slave ActLaw mandating escapee return
- sectionalismGeographic loyalty over national
- states' rightsProvincial governmental autonomy
- Mason-Dixon lineSurveyed colonial-era state boundary
Henry Clay · Zachary Taylor · John C. Calhoun · antebellum · Mexican-American War · territorial expansion · Underground Railroad · California Gold Rush · popular sovereignty · free state · slave state · abolitionism · Lincoln-Douglas debates · Jefferson Davis · North · speech · Manifest Destiny · Congress
- 1840s-1850sOregon Trail, California Gold Rush, Mexican-American War, Manifest Destiny, Underground Railroad
- Antebellum Americaantebellum era, sectionalism, states' rights, Fugitive Slave Act, Kansas-Nebraska Act
- Historic LawsHomestead Act, Fugitive Slave Act, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Chinese Exclusion Act, Indian Removal Act
- political dealsaccord, pact, treaty, bargaining, bipartisan bill
- slave lawsslave code, slave codes, Code Noir, Fugitive Slave Act, pass laws
- Abolitionismabolitionists, abolitionist movement, anti-slavery, antislavery, abolitionism
Compromise of 1850secession
Formal withdrawal from union
unilateral action · nullification · Civil War · disunion · Fort Sumter
Compromise of 1850Emancipation Proclamation
Executive order freeing Confederate slaves
Thirteenth Amendment · Civil War · Dred Scott decision · Kansas-Nebraska Act · Confederate States of America