The Missouri Compromise (1820) was a political deal that tried to keep peace between free and slave states as the United States expanded west.

Quick Scoop

In simple terms, the Missouri Compromise did three big things:

  1. Let Missouri join as a slave state.
    • Missouri entered the Union allowing slavery.
  1. Created Maine as a free state to keep balance.
    • Maine was split off from Massachusetts and admitted as a free state so the number of free and slave states in the Senate stayed equal.
  1. Drew a line across the map for future slavery.
    • Congress set a boundary at latitude 36°30′:
      • Territories north of that line (except Missouri) were to be free.
      • Territories south of that line could allow slavery.

Why it mattered

  • It temporarily calmed the fierce argument between North and South over the spread of slavery.
  • It also deepened the sectional divide , because it literally drew a line between “free” and “slave” regions, something Thomas Jefferson warned would someday tear the Union apart.
  • Later laws, especially the Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854) and the Dred Scott decision (1857) , overturned the compromise and helped push the country toward the Civil War.

One-sentence recap

The Missouri Compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, and set a geographic line at 36°30′ to regulate where slavery could spread in future territories.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.