Congressional Acts Regarding Slavery
This act aided the South in their attempt to keep slavery alive in the US by giving states the choice to permit or abolish slavery
Through a series of compromises, Congress tried to maintain balance and therefore not upset either side to a point where war was the only option
- MISSOURI COMPROMISE, 1820
- Missouri enters the country as a slave state
- Maine enters as a free state
- Maintains balance in Congress between free and slave states
- COMPROMISE OF 1850
- New land was settled after the Louisiana Purchase
- California was to become a state
- Would tip balance between free and slave states
- California enters as a free state
- Southerners get the Fugitive Slave Act
- KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT 1854
- Repeals the Missouri Compromise
- Territories in the Louisiana Purchase have right of popular sovereignty