Compromises over Slavery and Statehood
In an effort to appease factions from the North and South, Congress repeatedly found itself needing to create delicate compromises throughout the first half of the 1800s.
Each of these compromises was designed to maintain the balance of "free states" where slavery was prohibited and "slave states" that allowed slavery.
The first of these balancing acts was the Missouri Compromise of 1820. When Missouri requested statehood, there were 11 free states and 11 slave states. To maintain that balance, Missouri was admitted as a slave state and Maine as a free state.
The Compromise also drew an imaginary line at 36°30′ latitude (meaning east to west) above which no state or territory could allow slavery.
Even though Missouri fell above this 36°30′, it was still entered as a slave state under the Compromise. The free states were thus: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and what is today Michigan and Wisconsin.
The slaveholding states included: Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Missouri, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and the Florida Territory.
The Missouri Compromise pacified both sides for years. However, 30 years later the same debated sparked up again.
This time the issue was statehood for California, which would upset the balance and also stretched north and south of the 36°30′ line.
As part of the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted to the union as a free state. To mollify Southerners, the compromise included the Fugitive Slave Act. This law required the government to return anyone who escaped slavery back into bondage, even if they were in a free state. To placate those in the North, the Compromise of 1850 banned the slave trade in Washington, D.C.
This Compromise did not last long, however. Western territories were growing in population quickly as Americans headed west. Southern politicians refused to create new territories north of 36°30' latitude. Northern politicians insisted they follow the agreement they had made in 1820.
In 1854, Senator Stephen Douglas proposed repealing the Missouri Compromise and using "popular sovereignty" to determine if slavery was to be permitted in any new states or territories.
Popular sovereignty is the idea that the people, speaking through their elected representatives, should have the power to decide the fate of their state. This policy became the Kansas-Nebraska Act, named for the two territories it created.
This reversed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 because the 36°30′ line no longer mattered. Both Kansas and Nebraska were above that line but could now hold elections on whether they wanted to allow the enslavement of men, women, and children in their state.
The result of this decision came to be known as "Bleeding Kansas" as violent actions were taken by proslavery "border ruffians" and antislavery "free-staters" between 1854 and 1859. There was also widespread electoral fraud and intimidation.
Eventually, the majority of Kansans wanted to enter the Union as a free state, but this required congressional approval, which Southerners in Congress blocked.