Compromises
A. Missouri Compromise
1. Missouri wants statehood
– Applies to join Union in 1819
– Would join as a slave state
– Would throw off the balance in the congress
2. Balance of Power
– US is split half slave and half free states
– Each has equal representation in congress
– Free states don’t want Missouri to join
3. The Compromise
– Missouri joins as slave state
– Maine joins as a free state
– Slavery banned in northern part of Louisiana
Purchase
– Missouri Compromise line 36⁰ 30’ N: everything
north of that must be a free states
– Keeps the balance for the time being
B. Compromise of 1850
1. New Territory – Free or Slave?
– Lots of new land gained after Mexican American War
– The question of slave or free states comes up again
– Northerners did not want slavery to extend to these
new states
2. California upsets the balance
– California want to become a
free state in 1850
– Southerners said they may
leave the Union if it joined
– Henry Clay comes up with a
plan known as the
Compromise of 1850
3. The Compromise
– California admitted as a free state
– New Mexico and Utah territories organized,
residents would decide on slavery
– Fugitive Slave act passed
– Slave trade in District of Columbia outlawed
– Keeps the balance for the time being
C. Fugitive Slave Act
1. What it does
– Makes it a federal crime to
assist runaway slaves
– Escaped slaves can be
arrested in states where
slavery is illegal
2. Problems with Law
– People accused of being escaped slaves had to
prove they were not slaves
– Those who claimed to be owners did not have to
show any real proof
– Escaped slaves who had lived free for many years
could be returned to slavery
– Judges were paid $10 for every slave returned
and $5 for every case not proved
3. Resistance in the North
– Law heavily opposed by abolitionists
– Mobs rescued slaves from police
– Many Northerners who were quiet on slavery
now became vocal
– Southerners were angered by North’s reaction
and leaders talked about leaving the union again
D. Kansas Nebraska Act
1. Railroad Causes problems
– A railroad needs to be built to connect California
to the rest of the country
– Southerners want it to connect to New Orleans
– Northerners want it to connect in the north
2. Douglas’s Plan
– Stephen Douglas (IL
Senator) wants the
railroad to connect to
Chicago
– Comes up with a plan to
get South to vote for this
– Kansas and Nebraska to
use popular sovereignty
to decide on slavery
– Popular Sovereignty =
people vote
– But Missouri Compromise
will not allow this
3. The Kansas Nebraska Act (1854)
– Missouri Compromise is repealed
– Allows the possibility of slavery north of the
Missouri Compromise line
4. Effect on Political Parties
– Democratic Party weakened by arguments over
Northern Dems and Southern Dems
– Whig Party falls apart
– Northern Whigs and Democrats form Republican
Party
– Republican Party spreads across Northern states
Bleeding Kansas (1854-1858)
• popular soveriegnty
• sequence of violent events involving antislavery and pro-slavery groups
• 63 people died
• entered as a free state
Dred Scott Case (1857)
• Supreme Court Case
• slave who sued unsuccessfully for his freedom
• lived in states and territories where slavery was illegal
• master died in Illinois – a free state
• the Court ruled that slaves had no claim to
freedom; they were property and not citizens
• It allowed slavery anywhere in the U.S.