36°30' Line (Missouri Compromise)

The Missouri Compromise, also called the Compromise of 1820, divided the country into a North and South. It created a line at latitude 36°30'. Any new states North of this line, excluding Missouri would be free states, and any new states South of the line would be slave states. Missouri was allowed to write a state constitution to determine the legality of slavery within the proposed state.

The United States in 1820. The Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery in the Unorganized territory of the Great Plains (dark green) and permitted it in Missouri (yellow) and the Arkansas Territory (blue).

Road to the Civil War

“By the 1850’s the Constitution, originally framed as an instrument of national unity, had become a source of sectional discord and tension and ultimately contributed to the failure of the union it had created.” 1987 DBQ