The Missouri Compromise | Henry Clay and the Struggle for the Union

The Missouri Compromise was reached to resolve a months-long crisis over the expansion of slavery in the United States. In watching this video, students will learn how the Missouri Compromise was reached.

Missouri’s statehood petition was blocked in the Senate in February 1819, because adding a slave state would upset the balance of power between free states and slave states. Southern states were threatening to secede from the Union. In March 1820, House Speaker Henry Clay saw a way to keep the balance of power by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, and limiting slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Territory.