History of the United States I / Unit 11 USH1 1519 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Missouri Compromise
Captions available
The idea
The compromise of eighteen twenty admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, keeping the Senate even.
In practice
Maine, which had been part of Massachusetts, separated to make the arithmetic work.
Where people slip
The balance was preserved by inventing a state, which indicates how mechanical the calculation had become.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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