Listening: Compromises over Slavery and Statehood

Why did Congress create compromises during the early 1800s?

• To end all disagreements between the North and South.

• To keep a balance of free states and slave states.

• To favor the North's views of anti-slavery.

• To favor the South's views in favor of slavery.

What was the main goal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820?

• To end slavery in all states.

• To give more land to slave states.

• To keep a balance between free states in the North and slave states in the South.

• To divide the North and the South into two separate nations.

How did the Missouri Compromise maintain the balance of states?

• By admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.

• By making both Missouri and Maine free states.

• By rejecting Missouri's request for statehood.

• By turning all territories into free states.

What was the purpose of the 36°30′ line in the Missouri Compromise?

• To mark the boarder between the United States and Canada.

• To separate areas where slavery was allowed from areas were it was not allowed.

• To show where new states could be created in the North and in the South.

• To divide free states in the North from slave states in the South.

Why did the issue of balancing free and slave states come up again 30 years after the Missouri Compromise?

• Because new countries were joining the United States.

• Because California wanted to become a state.

• Because slavery had already ended everywhere.

• Because the North and South agreed on everything.

The Fugitive Slave Act was added to the Compromise of 1850 by Southern states. How did this affect people who escaped slavery?

• It allowed them to live freely in any state.

• It required them to move to California.

• It required them to be returned to slavery.

• It gave them land in the West.

Why did the Compromise of 1850 not last very long?

• People stopped moving to the West.

• The North and South quickly agreed on slavery.

• California decided to leave the Union.

• New territories caused more disagreements beween the North and South.

"Popular sovereignty" was a driving idea behind the Kansas-Nebraska Act. What was the main idea behind "popular sovereignty"?

• The people vote to decide important issues in their state, such as slavery.

• The federal government decides all laws, which would end the debate of slavery between the North and the South.

• Only wealthy landowners can make decisions, which would benefit states in the South.

• States must follow decisions made by other states.

How did the Kansas-Nebraska Act change the Missouri Compromise?

• It kept the 36°30′ line in place.

• It ended slavery in all territories.

• It made the 36°30′ line no longer important.

• It created more free states than slave states.

What was "Bleeding Kansas"?

• A meeting of Congress to seperate the Kansas Territory into multiple free and slave states.

• A law that limited voting rights.

• The first battle between the North and the South leading to the Civil War.

• A period of violence between proslavery and antislavery groups.