Transcript Compromise
Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, and the KansasNebraska Act Compromise • What is a compromise? – An agreement reached between two sides by both giving up something • Sectionalism existed among Northern and Southern states – Northern states did not allow slavery – Southern states allowed slavery • A balance of 11 slave states and 11 free states existed in the United States prior to 1817 Not the way it happened… James Monroe-the U.S. president at the time of the Missouri Compromise THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE Causes of the Missouri Compromise • Missouri applied for statehood in 1817 • The people of Missouri wanted to allow slavery in their state • Letting Missouri in as a slave state would upset the balance • No one could agree on the best way to allow Missouri in What Happened??? • Henry Clay, who became known as the Great Compromiser, came up with a plan • Clay’s plan, known as the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 – Missouri was admitted as a slave state – Maine was admitted as a free state – Slavery was banned from the Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 3630’ (Missouri’s southern border) Effects of the Missouri Compromise • The Missouri Compromise kept the Union together • The compromise, however, did not settle the future of slavery in the United States as a whole • John Quincy Adams wrote, “If the Union must be dissolved, slavery is precisely the question on which it ought to break. For the present, however, the contest is laid asleep.” COMPROMISE OF 1850 Causes of the Compromise of 1850 • After the Mexican War, American leaders debated on how to deal with slavery in the Mexican Cession • The California Gold Rush brought thousands of people into that territory • Northerners wanted to admit California as a free state • Southerners wanted to split California into two parts-half slave and half free What Happened??? • California couldn’t gain statehood without approval of Congress, which was divided over the issue • Henry Clay stepped in with a plan, again… – To please the North • California was admitted as a free state • The slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C. – To please the South • New Mexico and Utah would be open to slavery • Congress would pass a stronger fugitive slave law The Fugitive Slave Act • The 1850 law helped slaveholders recapture runaway slaves • Southerners considered slaves as property, so they thought the act was justified • Northerners resented the law became it forced them to become involved in slavery – Many refused to help – Some aided runaway slaves THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT The Kansas-Nebraska Act • In 1854, Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas drafted a bill to organize governments in the Nebraska Territory • He wanted to divide it into two territoriesNebraska and Kansas • To get support for the bill, he proposed that the decision to allow slavery would be left up to popular sovereignty • The act overturned the Missouri Compromise “Bleeding Kansas” The act turned Kansas into a battleground over slavery Proslavery and antislavery settlers rushed into the Kansas Territory to vote There ended up being more proslavery voters Antislavery voters boycotted the resulting government and formed their own “Bleeding Kansas” • Settlers on both sides armed themselves • In May 1855, a proslavery group attacked the town of Lawrence, Kansas • In return, John Brown (an extreme abolitionist) and seven other men murdered five proslavery people in their cabins • Civil war in Kansas broke out and continued for three years