The Impact Of The Missouri Compromise And The Fugitive Slave Act

Congress has always played a pivotal role in addressing the social and economic issues of the United States. This legislation has shaped the US’s economic and political situations as well as affecting the public sentiment of America’s society. Two specific pieces of legislation passed during the course of the US’s history that have had significant impacts on slavery and sectionalism have been the Missouri Compromise (1820) and the Fugitive Slave Act (1850). Both legislative pieces have roots stemming from the theory of manifest destiny and the country’s desire to expand itself. More over, both would impact America permanently. The Missouri compromise had its roots during the time frame of 1800 up until the passage of the actual legislation.

Underlying issues of slavery in American society at the time is what made adding these new states from the territories become problematic. Specifically, the state of missouri wanted to be admitted into the union as a slave state. However, many of the northerners in the union saw this as a threat to the current balance/ratio of slave to free states. Luckily, around the same time, Maine wished to be brought into the union as well. Due to this, the Missouri compromise was drawn up, allowing Missouri to enter as a slave state and Maine as free, keeping the balance in the Senate in check once again. The legislation also included that a line would be drawn at the 36°30° parallel, disallowing slavery to exist in the territories anywhere above that line. The passage of this legislation may have ended up placating the growing tensions between the North and the South over the issue of slavery, specifically in the territories, but the passage of it predicted that the expansion of slavery would be a contentious issue from now on. Not much later, northerners delayed the annexation of Texas over the issue of

One such compromise included the Fugitive Slave Act (1850) which also had its origins in westward expansion as well as the expansion of human bondage (slavery). With the passage of Henry Clay’s controversial Compromise of 1850, came the birth of a harsher fugitive slave Act in 1850. Much more specifically it came about due to the slaveholders’ outrage at the success of the underground railroad. Clay compromised that California, after its recent population increase due to the gold rush in 1849, would be brought into the union as a free state and the slave trade in Washington D.C. would be outlawed. However, in return, for the South, a new, stricter, fugitive slave law would be passed. This Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 tightened the South’s grip on its fugitive (runaway) slaves by punishing those who harbored runaways in the North. The impact of this legislation was pertinent as well to the growing sectionalism leading up to the civil war. Northern abolitionists were inflamed by the passage of this Act. In response, many Northern states passed their own “personal liberty acts” in attempts to override the Act in the