may 8, 1820 - The Missouri Compromise

Description:

Worried that the admission of a 23rd state would upset the delicate balance of free and slave states, Congress admitted the Missouri Territory to the United States as a slave state, and Maine (formerly part of Massachusetts) to the U.S. as a free state. In addition, any states established north of the 36°30′ parallel would become free states, except for Missouri, and any south of the parallel slave states. This event's contribution to sectionalism lies in its later usurpations under the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott Decision.