Missouri Compromise (1821)

The Missouri Compromise addressed issues of slavery in new territories. It provided that, except for Missouri itself, slavery would be banned in territories contained within the area of the Louisiana Purchase above 36°30’ north latitude. Missouri would be admitted to the union as a slave state.

The Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) and was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) where the Court held that Congress lacked the power to ban slavery in the territories.