1820Primary sourceWell documented
The Missouri Compromise
On the timeline · around 1820 ·
What happened
To settle a bitter fight over whether new states would allow slavery, Congress in 1820 admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, and banned slavery in the rest of the Louisiana territory north of latitude 36°30′.
Why it matters
The Compromise held the union together for a generation but drew a stark line across the map — and across the nation's conscience. The struggle over slavery in the territories would ultimately break the country apart.