The Missouri Compromise
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=465
General Information
Source:
NBC News
Resource Type:
Creator:
N/A
Copyright:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
1819
01/12/2007
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video MiniDocumentary
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
2007
00:02:50
Description
In 1819, when Missouri enters the union, a compromise is reached about whether Missouri should be a
slave or free state.
Keywords
United States Senate, Slavery, Territories, Louisiana Purchase, Missouri, Union, Politicians, North, South
, James Tallmadge, New York, Emancipation, State's Rights, Debate, Reformers, Abolition, Secession,
Henry Clay, Speaker of the House, Maine, Thomas Jefferson, Civil War
Citation
MLA
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1 of 3
"The Missouri Compromise." NBC News. NBCUniversal Media. 12 Jan. 2007. NBC Learn. Web. 19
March 2015
APA
2007, January 12. The Missouri Compromise. [Television series episode]. NBC News. Retrieved from
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=465
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"The Missouri Compromise" NBC News, New York, NY: NBC Universal, 01/12/2007. Accessed Thu
Mar 19 2015 from NBC Learn: https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=465
Transcript
The Missouri Compromise
Narrator: In 1819, representation in the Senate was equally balanced between states that allowed slavery
and states that prohibited it. But as territories that had been acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase
began to apply for statehood, one question came up: Would they join with the slave states or the free
states? Missouri’s application for admission to the Union threatened to tip the delicate balance in the
Senate and sparked the first of many national debates about slavery. Northern politicians immediately
called for the Missouri Territory to free its slaves as a condition for entering the Union.
Professor MATTHEW WARSHAUER (Central Connecticut State University): And so you get this major
divide between the North and the South. The biggest one that had ever occurred since the creation of the
Constitution, where they had settled certain issues over slavery. Well, the Missouri compromise brings it
all back up.
Narrator: When James Tallmadge, a New York representative, put forth an amendment suggesting gradual
emancipation for Missouri’s slaves, Southerners were outraged. Not only did Southerners in Congress
want Missouri to join their ranks as a slaveholding state, they didn’t want the Federal government
deciding what a state should do regarding slavery. The nation’s first major debate on slavery had begun.
In the North, religious reformers organized antislavery rallies, bringing their cause to the forefront of
national politics. And in the South, the word “secession” was uttered for the first time. But almost as soon
as it had begun, the conflict ended with the Missouri Compromise.
WARSHAUER: Henry Clay, who is Speaker of the House at the time, gets most of the credit for that
because of this compromise and a couple others, he becomes known as the “Great Compromiser.”
Narrator: Clay guided a bill through the Senate declaring that Missouri would come into the Union as a
slave state, but the northern state of Maine would be also be admitted as a free state, maintaining the
tenuous balance in the Senate. As part of the Missouri Compromise, Congress took the line along the
southern boundary of Missouri and extended it west across the remainder of the territories in the
Louisiana Purchase. Then Congress declared that slavery would be permitted south of that line, but
banned north of it. The slavery issue had been settled, for the moment. But many, like ex-President
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2 of 3
Thomas Jefferson, predicted that the Missouri debate signaled a crisis that would eventually tear the
country apart. “This momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with
terror,” he wrote to a friend. “I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. "
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3 of 3