Missouri Compromise
Antebellum sectional agreement
The Missouri Compromise was an 1820 agreement in the United States Congress that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while prohibiting slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36°30' parallel.
The compromise temporarily eased sectional tensions over slavery's expansion but was effectively repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
It remains a landmark example of political bargaining that delayed rather than resolved a fundamental conflict.
- congressional debateFormal lawmaker discussion
- Thomas JeffersonThird American president
- balance of powerEqual distribution of influence
- free stateRegion with political independence
James Monroe · slave state · statehood · territory · Union · ratification · proviso · bipartisan
Splitting into parts
- demarcationFormal boundary setting
- slave statePolity permitting human bondage
- free stateRegion with political independence
- balanceSteadiness or amount owed
polarization · disunion · rift · tension · regionalism · border · Mason-Dixon · schism
Formal discontinuation of practice
- slaveholderOwner of enslaved persons
- bondageInvoluntary subjugation to another
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
- chattelMovable personal property
plantation · enslaved · antebellum · expansion · cotton · fugitive · servitude · slaveholding states
Annul a statute
- Kansas-Nebraska Act1854 territorial organization law
- Dred ScottAntebellum freedom-suit plaintiff
- Civil WarCountrymen fighting countrymen
- nullificationFormal cancellation of validity
collapse · temporary · breakdown · secession · conflict · unraveling · prelude · tension
Henry Clay
- congressional debateFormal lawmaker discussion
- Thomas JeffersonThird American president
- balance of powerEqual distribution of influence
James Monroe · free state · slave state · statehood · territory · Union · ratification · proviso · bipartisan · negotiation
division
Splitting into parts
- demarcationFormal boundary setting
- slave statePolity permitting human bondage
- free stateRegion with political independence
balance · polarization · disunion · rift · tension · regionalism · border · Mason-Dixon · schism · antebellum
abolition
Formal discontinuation of practice
- slaveholderOwner of enslaved persons
- bondageInvoluntary subjugation to another
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
chattel · plantation · enslaved · antebellum · expansion · cotton · fugitive · servitude · slaveholding states · proslavery
repeal
Annul a statute
- Kansas-Nebraska Act1854 territorial organization law
- Dred ScottAntebellum freedom-suit plaintiff
- Civil WarCountrymen fighting countrymen
nullification · collapse · temporary · breakdown · secession · conflict · unraveling · prelude · tension · instability
- slave lawsslave code, slave codes, Code Noir, Fugitive Slave Act, pass laws
- 1800s AmericaOregon Trail, Trail of Tears, transcontinental railroad, Civil War, Abraham Lincoln
- US HistoryAmerican Revolution, US history, Civil War, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln
- legislaturebill, senators, senator, state legislature, legislators
- 1810s-1820sNapoleonic Wars, Waterloo, Congress of Vienna, Regency, Monroe Doctrine
- Antebellum Americaantebellum era, sectionalism, states' rights, Fugitive Slave Act, Kansas-Nebraska Act
Missouri CompromiseCivil War
Countrymen fighting countrymen
Kansas-Nebraska Act · Emancipation Proclamation · Thirteenth Amendment · secession · Fort Sumter
compromise, uncompromising, compromising, compromised, Missouri, Missourians