The Missouri Compromise
After the war of 1812, thousands of Americans moved into western territories. When new states entered the Union, antislavery and proslavery advocates clashed on how far slavery would be allowed to spread. In 1817, Missouri residents petitioned for statehood. There were approximately ten thousand enslaved people in the territory. When Alabama was admitted to the Union in 1819, there were eleven free states and eleven slave states.
Missouri became a state the same year. According to the book, The Negro Pilgrimage In America, by C.L. Lincoln, because so many of white slave-owners came from the South, they thought Missouri would join the Union as a slave state. A pro-abolitionist from New York named James Tallmadge was determined this would not be the case. He was a Congressman and tried to amend a bill proposing the Territory’s admission, so the importation of slaves would be barred from the state’s constitution. Lincoln wrote that Tallmadge wanted the eventual emancipation of all slaves who had been born in the Territory. Tallmadge’s amendment passed the House of Representatives in February, 1819, but the Senate rejected the proposal.
When Alabama joined the Union, there was a numerical balance in the Senate between slave and free states. Maine threatened the balance when it was proposed for admission. This caused Southern politicians to agree to a compromise. Under the compromise, slavery would be prohibited in the Missouri state constitution.
Some politicians in Congress tried to fix boundaries for slavery. Their long term plan was abolition. After a heated debate, they agreed on a compromise. In 1820, Missouri entered the nation as a slave state and brought in Maine as a free state. Except for Missouri, slavery would not be allowed north of a line drawn from the southern border of Missouri. The compromise restricted slavery in future states carved from the Louisiana territory to the area south of the southern border of Missouri.
Lincoln wrote, “The liberals were able to promote an important stipulation. Congress required a pledge from the Missouri legislature that its new constitution would not abridge the rights of United States citizens, thus protecting those freedmen living in the state.”
Francie Mae. February 27, 2022
Reference
C. Eric Lincoln. November 1967. The Negro Pilgrimage In America. Bantam Pathfinder Books.