The Missouri Compromise: The Conflict Between Slavery And Free States

By 1820, conflicts were already beginning to arise between slave and free states. At this time, The United States of America was divided on whether or not the Missouri territory would allow slavery once they achieved statehood. Before Missouri came about, there was an equal amount of free and slave states, and Congress’ decision could have tipped the balance of the Senate to favor either side. At first, Missouri was deemed to become a free state in the near future due to the Tallmadge amendment, which prohibited any additional slaves from being brought into the state and mandated that children of enslaved parents were to eventually be given freedom. This essentially designated Missouri as a free state, which enraged southerners. After much deliberation in the Senate, the slave states managed to dissolve the Tallmadge amendment. …show more content…
As Missouri gained the title of statehood, Maine did as well, therefore preserving balance in the Senate. This did not give an advantage to either the slave states or free states, which both sides were desperately vying for. Neither side was pleased with the deadlocked Congress before, so this compromise settled close to nothing. The one issue it did resolve was the fate of new states. The Missouri Compromise declared that any new state, other than Missouri, north of 36° 30’ were to disallow slavery. This was a massive victory for the north states, as it deemed far more land to be free than slave states. According to those agreements, only present-day Arkansas and part of Oklahoma were to tolerate slavery, whereas the area that was sentenced to become free states spanned as far as present-day Idaho. This was the only bright spot in the compromise for either side, so it established the fact that the northern states got more out of the deal than their southern counterparts. Although this was a win for the free states, they did sacrifice a few things to get