Thursday, March 5th

After Tuesday you were left with a map that showed 11 free and 11 slave states colored in on your map (handout #3). This provided a great situation for the country. With free and slave states balanced neither could threaten to overpower the other. No laws could be made ending or extending slavery because the vote on such laws would never pass through the Senate and if it didn't pass in the Senate it was not law. Thus the country would stay together.

But a problem arose when Missouri applied for statehood. Missoui wanted to be a slave state and entering as a slave state upset northerners. Northerners proposed that no more slaves be allowed to enter Missouri and that slaves would be freed upon reaching the age of 25. Now southerners were at odds with the North. THIS ARGUMENT WAS THREATENING TO BREAK UP THE COUNTRY. Fortunately while our leaders were debating the Missouri situation, Maine also applied for statehood. This allowed leaders to work out a compromise where Missouri became a slave state and Maine became a free state. This arrangement was two parts to the compromise. Political leaders tried to solve future slavery issues by setting a line by which slavery would be allowed beneath the line and slavery would be banned above the line. This line was a line of latitude at 36 degrees 30 minutes. This was the 3rd part to the Missouri Compromise. Update you map by coloring Missouri your slave state color and Maine your free state color. Lastly, take your regular pen or pencil and darken in the 36 degrees 30 line. This line is the southern border of Missouri and it extends to the border of Texas. Label this line correctly

You should read page 257 and 258 in your textbooks. This section fills in information about the Missouri Compromise. When you are finished with this reading you should complete handout #4. If you feel you can do this handout easily you are all set. If not you should make sure you see me. When you are finished with #4 you should go back to handout #3. Look at your list of states and their order of admission to the Union. Put parenthesis around Maine and Missouri because those states came into the Union together. Do the same thing for Arkansas and Michigan. They also entered together. This kept the balance of power in the Senate still equal. Put a bigger parenthesis around Florida, Texas, Wisconsin and Iowa. Those four states were admitted together as well continuing to maintain balance between free and slave states. When you are finished with the list update the maps by coloring all the new free states you free state color and all the new slave states you slave state color.

Next you should complete the top half of handout #5. This is a notes outline. The notes should be as follows:

Missouri Compromise - 1820
Created by: Henry Clay
Why: To keep balance of power equal between the free/slave states
Terms:
1) Maine is a free state
2) Missouri is a slave state
3) Slavery will be banned above 36 degrees 30 and allowed beneath it
The Missouri Compromise led to a period of compromise and balance that kept the U.S. together and out of Civil War for 30 years.

You should then move on to handout #6. Handout #6 has three questions at the top about the Missouri Comp that you should try to answer. For question #1 you should think about what the South gained from the Missouri Compromise. Key to question #2 is the term sectionalism. Sectionalism is when sections of the country become more important and more identifiable than the nation as a whole. The Missouri Comp contributed to sectionalism. How? You need to find Jefferson's quote to answer question #3. This quote is on handout #3 and also in the reading on page 257.

Lastly today, we worked on the next compromise that was needed because balance could not be maintained when California was ready to become a state. You should read handout #7 which is reading handout and complete the questions on handout #6 about the Compromise of 1850.

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