today we want to go over the missouri compromise and what we mean by that we're talking about compromise that was reached politically in the admission of missouri as a territory to eventually form a state and as our country grew and spread westward there was the constant question of slavery entering in and the whole idea was that america was sectionally divided north and south and this north-south sectionalism showed itself as new states new territories were brought into the union and the question was would they be allowed to form a state government and write a state constitution that permitted or forbade slavery now the way this was fought out was basically each state was allowed to send representatives to the house of representatives on the federal level based on population now the north was more populous therefore they would have more representation well they'd already come up with the three-fifths compromise which said in the southern states they could count three out of every five slaves for the purposes of representation and they also had to count those three out of every five for purposes of taxation so that was the compromise you get taxed on more of your population but you also get representation from your population so that solved sort of the situation in terms of the house of representatives now on the side of the senate each state got to send two representatives no matter the size of the state big state small state all got two and so most of the power in terms of power struggle was localized in the senate and what the south sought to do was protect its institution which was necessary they felt economically because of their large-scale manufacturing of cotton and tobacco and their need for a large workforce they wanted to protect that and so what they sought to do was to have an equal number of states that were pro-slavery to those that were anti-slavery that way the representation in the senate because they all get to would be equal well recently just prior to this in 1819 alabama had been admitted as a state and as a slave state and with the admission of alabama the number of slave states and free states had once again be been brought to equality they were the same number and with that equilibrium they were happy well missouri was about to come in and as missouri was about to come in that would suddenly tip the balance pro-slavery there would now be one more slave state than there were non-slave states and there was a big battle over that do we want to allow the southern pro-slavery group to have more power and more representation than those of us from the northeast who were here originally the original colonies that were anti-slavery what are we going to do well at about the same time missouri was seeking admission maine was seeking admission and maine would absolutely come in as a free state and well here we go all politics it says is based on lies and compromise and there's a lot of truth in that certainly on the compromise side if we're going to have political things happen and people have to share power some people have to give up something and give something in order for people to work together so this compromise said at the same time that maine comes in as a free state we'll admit missouri as a slave state and keep the balance there they'll still be the same number of states representing in the senate the free side as well as the slave side with this added stipulation that in the territory west of missouri and above the parallel line of 36 degrees 30 minutes north of that and west of missouri would be considered free so if any of those areas those territories got organized into states they would automatically come in as free states and could not be considered uh for the pro-slavery side and so that was sort of the compromise worked out maine comes in missouri comes in and then from the parallel which is the southern border of missouri and west of the state 36 degrees 30 minutes and north would be considered slave free there were other stipulations put in there that would encourage northerners to return runaway slaves that would basically help protect the institution of slavery and and trade-offs that way um and basically all of this was just stop gap thomas jefferson said look we are deeply divided as a nation if we can't come together on this question one way or the other it's going to lead to division and war and it did finally in the 1860s so they kept limping along as best as they could with this compromise it's part of a political power struggle because the north and south sectionalism the admission of alabama as a state made the number of free and slave states equal they admitted maine as a free state at the same time as missouri is a slave state to keep the number equal and this number is critical here there's 36 degrees 30 minutes uh being the boundary everything north of that and west of missouri and the louisiana purchase would be considered forever after free henry clay is an important name to remember in this regard the great compromiser he was speaker of the house that helped cobble a lot of this stuff together i'm trying to make people look let's work together let's find equality let's find an answer and the missouri compromise as thomas jefferson said was merely a a temporary stopping point they prolonged the inevitable and this question of slavery versus freedom would not be decided until the 1860s and our bloody civil war which finally answered that question in favor of freedom all right well this has just been a brief overview of the missouri compromise of 1820 if you'd like to learn more about this in related matters underneath this video you'll see a link if you'll click on that link it'll take you to the website that has it information and while you're on that website you'll also find a link to an e-book that's ready for immediate download you