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 18501. 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 Act1. 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 anti-

slavery 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.