Curated OER
Background to the Conflict: Pre-Civil War Days
The American Civil War was a complex test of a relatively young democracy in the mid-nineteenth century. Discuss the events and factors that led to the Civil War with a thorough slideshow presentation.
US National Archives
Our Documents: Missouri Compromise (1820)
Read an original transcript, and view an image of a report on the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This legislation admitted Missouri and Maine as states into the Union.
PBS
Africans in America: Missouri Compromise
This PBS site offers information about the compromise that settled the question of whether slavery would be allowed in the vast area acquired from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
OpenStax
Open Stax: The Missouri Crisis
This section of a chapter on "Westward Expansion" explains why the North and South differed over the admission of Missouri as a state and how the admission of new states to the Union threatened to upset the balance between free and slave...
Library of Congress
Loc: Missouri Became the 24th State
As Missouri became a state, America was divided by slavery. This site from the Library of Congress offers a description of the events, as well as a railroad map, a painting of the Missouri Squadron, and a bust of Henry Clay, designer of...
Library of Congress
Loc: Missouri Became the 24th State
As Missouri became a state, America was divided by slavery. This site from the Library of Congress offers a description of the events, as well as a railroad map, a painting of the Missouri Squadron, and a bust of Henry Clay, designer of...
American Rhetoric
American Rhetoric: Abraham Lincoln Address on Repeal of the Missouri Compromise
YThis is the text of Abraham Lincoln's Address on Repeal of the Missouri Compromise delivered October 16, 1854, in Peoria, Illinois.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: The Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854
An exploration of how the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 impacted the debate between free and slave states, and the precarious political equilibrium. It looks at how Stephen Douglas tried to avoid a national conflict in the debate over...
![Digital History: The Tallmadge Amendment [Pdf] Website](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Digital History: The Tallmadge Amendment [Pdf] Website")
Digital History
Digital History: The Tallmadge Amendment [Pdf]
The question of the expansion of slavery into the territories of the United States was an old question that was addressed again in the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Read about the Tallmadge Amendment and the opinions supporting and...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Extension of Slavery
Outline on the extension of slavery and U.S. westward expansion, touching on the development of the cotton gin, Northwest Ordinance and Missouri Compromise.
The History Place
The History Place: The Dred Scott Decision
This site from The History Place provides an account of the history of Dred Scott, an African-American slave, who took his suit for his freedom to the Supreme Court. The information is somewhat brief, but worthwhile.
Tom Richey
Tom richey.net: The Missouri Compromise: America's First Slavery Debate [Ppt]
Presents key ideas for examining the events surrounding the Missouri Compromise.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Missouri Compromise
A good look at the issues debated about the admission of new states, particularly those that would be made from the Louisiana Purchase. Read about why the issue of allowing slavery in the new states was such a hard decision for Congress....
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: History of Us: Fatal Contradiction: Missouri Compromise [Pdf]
A lesson plan from the producers of the 16-episode PBS series "Freedom: A History of US" that examines the goal of the Missouri Compromise. A good lesson for comparing and contrasting life in the North and South in the run-up to the...
The History Cat
The History Cat: Countdown to Civil War
Describes the events leading up to the start of the American Civil War. Looks at clashes between pro- and anti-slavery groups, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the fight over California, the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act,...
iCivics
I Civics: Slave States, Free States
In this lesson, students learn about the balance between slave states and free states and their geography, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850.
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: Missouri Compromise
Provides interesting facts and important information about the 1820 Missouri Compromise, a settlement reached between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions on the extension of slavery into new territories.