During the period of 1820-1861 the north and south debated on issues that dealt with slavery and unbalance power, in order to reduce sectional tension between these two states, the Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act were proposed.
The North and South both had opposite opinions about slavery, The South favored slavery because of there agricultural based economy which they needed slaves to attend to their harvests and crops, the North was against slavery because they were an industrialized nation they had no need for slavery. This debate went on and almost resulted to a civil war if not for the help of Henry Clay a Great Compromiser who announced a way to solve this issue using the Missouri Compromise, Kansas Nebraska Act, and the Compromise of 1850.
In 1820 the Missouri Compromise also known as the 36,30 was proposed by Henry Clay who intended that this compromise would help solve the issue that the North and South had about slavery which was that any state above the red line was considered a free state and any state below was a slave state, now this actually had a good affect because it reduced the tension for a while, but did not solve future problems that was going to occur between free and slave state.
In the Compromise of 1850 which was a compromise that was intended to solve issues that the Missouri Compromise couldn’t solve, This compromise made California a free state, It banned slave trade in Washington DC, It divided the land that Mexico acquired into two state and made the people decided on rather they wanted it to become a free or a slave state, It made Texas give up the land they acquired and also gave them 10 million dollars to pay their debt to Mexico, It announced that any runaway slaves that was not arrested or brought to the authority, that person would receive a fine of $1,000.
This compromise was proven to be affective but the fact that no one got what they really wanted made this issue unsolved. In 1854 another problem arose which resulted in Congress passing the Kansas-Nebraska Act which repealed the Missouri Compromise, this act was introduced by Stephen A.
Douglas a chairman of Committee on Territories, this act allowed the people of Kansas and Nebraska to choose rather they wanted slavery in their boundary or not through the power of popular sovereignty, the Pro-slavery settlers won the election but were charged with accusations that they cheated, in order to make sure that the vote was right they ordered a re-election but the Pro-slavery refused and the refusal resulted into a battle.
John Brown an Anti-slavery leader who believed that he was sent here by god to kill anyone who was pro-slavery. He led the anti-slavery force which gained the nickname “Bleeding Kansas”. The fight was soon stopped, and a final election was held, this time the anti-slavery settlers won the vote and was announced that Kansas would become a free state in 1861. In conclusion the Compromises and Acts may have had their flaws but it they some how manage to solve the slavery issues. Douglas Okwu 12-3-12 7th period
Bibliography
http://www. historyplace. com/lincoln/kansas. htm -http://www. historyking. com/American-History/timeline/1803- 1849/missouri-compromise/What-Did-The-Missouri-Compromise-Do. html[->0] – http://mrkash. com/activities/compromise. html – http://www. u-s-history. com/pages/h83. html [->0] – http://www. historyking. com/American-History/timeline/1803-1849/missouri-compromise/What-Did-The-Missouri-Compromise-Do. html
