Missouri+Compromise

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The Missouri Compromise
> The Missouri Compromise was a deal struck between the North and the South in a figurative sense. Brought about by Henry Clay, who had the nickname "the Great Compromiser" for a reason, it was a compromise between the North and the South about slavery, primarily. It was after the Louisiana Purchase, and there was a great controversy about who would extend their influence to the new states: the North, or the South. The Missouri Compromise said this (this is a summary by me, not the original words):


 * All states acquired by America from France by the terms of the Louisiana Purchase to the north of the southern boundary of Missouri would be "free states": no slavery allowed by law.
 * All states acquired by America from France by the terms of the Louisiana Purchase to the south of the southern border of Missouri, the new "Arkansas Territory", would be allowed to choose for themselves whether slavery was to be legal or illegal: whether they wanted to be "free states" or slave states".
 * Missouri would be a "slave state", as its population evidently wanted.
 * Maine would be admitted to the Union as a "free state".

> As America acquired further territories, every other state was a "free state". The balance of power between the North and the South was kept this way: with the introduction of the Missouri Compromise there were twelve "free states" and twelve "slave states", and for the next thirty years, the North and South were very close to even.