Slave state

A slave state is a U.S. state that had legal slavery (overwhelmingly the enslavement of African-Americans, although historically also the enslavement of Native Americans, and whites through indentured servitude) in the period before the American Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. The 15 slave states at the time of the Civil War were Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. (The District of Columbia also had slavery prior to the Civil War.) The last state to abolish slavery before the war was New Jersey in 1846, although the laws of that state retained slaves over a certain age as "apprentices for life" until the 13th Amendment.

Conflict over new territories

By the end of the War of 1812, the momentum for antislavery reform, state by state, appeared to run out of steam, with half of the States having already abolished slavery (Northeast), prohibited from the start (Midwest) or committed to eliminating slavery (New Jersey etc), and half committed to continuing the institution indefinitely (South). The potential for political conflict over slavery at a federal level led politicians to be concerned about the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, where each State was represented by two Senators. With an equal number of slave States and free States, the Senate was equally divided. As the population of the free States began to outstrip the population of the slave States, the Senate became the preoccupation of Slave state politicians, interested in maintaining a veto over federal policy in regard to slavery. As a result of this preoccupation, slave states and free states were often admitted into the Union in pairs, so as to maintain the existing balance between slave and free.

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The admission of Missouri and the Missouri Compromise

Controversy over whether Missouri should be admitted as a slave State, resulted in the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which specified that Louisiana Purchase territory north of latitude 36° 30', which described Missouri's southern boundary, would be organized as free States and territory south of that line would be reserved for organization as Slave states. As part of that Compromise, the admission of Maine was secured to balance Missouri's admission as a slave State.

Related Topics:
Missouri - Missouri Compromise - Maine

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Status of Texas and the Mexican Cession states

The admission of Texas and the acquisition of vast new western territories in the Mexican-American War, further excited controversy. Although the settled portion of Texas was an area rich in cotton plantations and dependent on slavery, the territory acquired in the Mountain West did not seem hospitable to cotton or slavery. In 1850, California was admitted as a free State, without an additional Slave state as balance. This would have created a free State majority in the Senate, except for the fact that California agreeably sent one pro-slavery and one anti-slavery Senator to Washington. Thus, the admission of California increased the anxiety of pro-slavery politicians, but did not change the balance in the Senate.

Related Topics:
Texas - Mexican-American War - California

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The last battles

The difficulty of identifying any territory, which could be organized into additional Slave states stalled the process of opening the western territories to settlement, while Slave state politicians sought a solution. Efforts were made to acquire Cuba, and even to annex Nicaragua. In 1854, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was repealed, and an effort was initiated to organize Kansas, as a Slave state. Kansas was paired with Minnesota, for admission, but the admission of Kansas as a Slave state was blocked, over the legitimacy of its slave state constitution. When the admission of Minnesota proceeded unimpeded, the balance in the Senate was lost, a loss compounded by the subsequent admission of Oregon.

Related Topics:
Kansas - Minnesota - Oregon

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Slave and free state pairs

Before 1812 the concern about balancing slave-states and free states was not profound. This is how the states lined up in 1812.

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Following 1812 and until the American Civil War, maintaining the balance of free and slave states within the federal legislature was considered of paramount importance if the Union was to be preserved, and states were admitted in pairs.

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