Statehood of Missouri (College Board AP® US History)

Summary

In the early 19^th century, the United States was expanding westward with the help of the federal government selling land cheaply to new settlers. However, this westward expansion heightened tensions over slavery. Opposition to Missouri becoming a state came from Southern states which raised questions over the balance of power between free states and states where slavery was still legal in Congress.

Missouri Becomes a State

• Westward expansion in the U.S. continued between 1800−1848

  • The expansion was fueled by the federal government’s offer to sell cheap land to settlers

  • Settlers entered new territories 

  • As settlers moved into Missouri they brought enslaved individuals to the territory

• Missouri Territory applied for statehood in 1818

• Opposition to statehood was due to 

  • Northern politicians feared that admitting Missouri as a slave state would cause an imbalance in the numbers of slave states and free states

    • States where slavery was still legal would outnumber free states, 12 to 11 

  • The House of Representatives opposed slavery because the majority of the US population lived in the North

    • The number of representatives a state has in Congress is determined by the size of the state’s population

    • Each African in the South was counted as three-fifths of a person at this time

The Tallmadge Amendment 

• New York Congressman James Tallmadge proposed the Tallmadge amendment in 1819 as part of the condition of admitting Missouri as a state

  • Settlers would no longer be allowed to bring enslaved people into Missouri

  • Enslaved people already in Missouri would be emancipated from enslavement when they reached the age of 25

  • All children born in Missouri after the state was admitted to the Union would be born as free people

Support for the Tallmadge Amendment

• Northerners supported the amendment because they wanted to limit the South’s political influence

Opposition to the Tallmadge Amendment

• Southerners opposed the amendment because they saw it as a way to end slavery in the United States

The outcome of the Tallmadge Amendment

• The House of Representatives, with its Northern majority, supported the amendment

• Senators who supported slavery removed the Tallmadge Amendment from the bill for Missouri statehood

• The House of Representatives refused to pass the bill without the amendment, and so the bill failed

Missouri Compromise

Summary

The debate over the extension of slavery into new territories intensified as the United States expanded westward in the early 19^th century. The Tallmadge amendment failed to pass, and the issue of maintaining a balance between free and slave states remained unsolved. As new states were being added to the Union, there was a growing concern about maintaining political power in Congress. Both regions feared the implications of an imbalance, as it could shift the power dynamics in favor of either pro-slavery or anti-slavery policies. Those seeking to end slavery in areas outside the South continued to try and find a compromise.

What caused the Missouri Compromise?

• The Tallmadge amendment failed to pass

  • The need for a compromise to keep the balance of free and enslaved states equal in Congress remained

• A line of demarcation was put in place to determine whether enslavement would be present in future states

AWAITING IMAGE

What did the Missouri Compromise agree to?

• The Missouri Compromise was proposed by Henry Clay in 1820

  • Maine entered the Union as a free state in 1820

  • Missouri entered the Union as a slave state in 1821 

  • This meant there were 12 free states and 12 slave states

• The legislature also had to agree to a second compromise before Missouri became a state

  • This was that Missouri could not exclude U.S. citizens who were free Black people or free people with multiracial backgrounds from receiving the rights in the state’s constitution 

• Line of demarcation or boundary set at 36° 30’ line of latitude in the Louisiana Territory

  • Slavery was prohibited in all future territories and states north of this line of latitude

Reactions to the Missouri Compromise

• Some people both in the North and South disliked the Missouri Compromise 

  • Northerners: disliked that slavery had expanded into new territories

  • Southerners: disliked that Congress set a precedent for making laws about slavery

• The Missouri Compromise meant that tensions between Northern and Southern States eased temporarily

• In the long term, it did not resolve issues around enslavement