What Was The Missouri Compromise?

The Missouri Compromise also known as the Compromise of 1820 was an agreement that was entered into in that year between anti and pro-slavery factions within the United States Congress. At first the factions were unwilling to come to any sort of compromise but later agreed to have slavery regulated in the territories to the west. The compromise prohibited slavery north of 36°30' North except in the case of Missouri. The provisions contained within the compromise were later repelled by the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act.

It was after the American and Mexican war that the issue of slavery pertaining to the new territories that led to the Compromise. It in many ways averted a political crisis that was brewing between the north and the south.