1820: Missouri Enters the Union as a Slave State
Big Idea
When Missouri joined the Union in 1820, it entered the Union as a “slave state,” effectively enshrining the dehumanizing forced labor practices of the era (slavery) into the state’s legal system.
Missouri’s History of Dehumanization
The United States in 1819
Image Source: Wikipedia
Before Missouri formed as a state and joined the United States in 1820, the land had been occupied for over a thousand years by Native Americans including the “Osages, Missouris, Iowas, and Omahas” (Campbell, 2013, p. 9). For many of these Native Americans, their treatment mirrored the dehumanizing conditions forced upon Africans in the region.
The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 changed Missouri from a free state to a slave state as it entered the Union. As part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, Missouri entered the United States as a slave state, while the state of Maine entered the United States as a free state to maintain the balance of states allowing slavery and those that did not. The Missouri Compromise also ensured that slavery was illegal above the 36º 30' in the rest of the Louisiana Territory (“Milestone Documents,” 2022, par. 1).
Your Turn
What is the significance of Missouri entering the Union as a “slave state”? How does that legacy still impact the state today?
-
National Park Service resource on St. Louis and the Missouri Compromise.
Documents related to the Missouri Compromise of 1820 from the National Archives.
Materials from the Library of Congress related to the Missouri Compromise.
Digital Maps related to the Missouri Compromise.
Founding Father addresses the Missouri Compromise of 1820, from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Digital resources related to the antebellum era.
-
Teaching materials from the National Archives related to the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
-
Explore the debate for Missouri Statehood as expressed through Missouri newspapers (University of Missouri, Saint Louis).
-
Grayson, S. M. (1996). Black Women in Antebellum America: Active Agents in the Fight for Freedom. William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications. 13.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/trotter_pubs/13Miles, T. (2024). Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People. Penguin Random House.