History glossary
Missouri Compromise
the 1820 agreement admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state while limiting slavery in parts of the Louisiana Purchase.
- Category
- Political compromise
- Region
- United States
- Date range
- 1820-1854
What it means
The Missouri Compromise was an 1820 congressional settlement that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, preserving Senate balance. It also barred slavery north of latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes in much of the Louisiana Purchase, postponing rather than resolving the sectional conflict.
