The Compromise of 1850 was passed by the U.S. Congress to settle slavery issues and to avert the dissolution of the Union. It stemmed from the request for statehood by the territory of California in 1849, which included a constitution banning slavery....

Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, the Northern and Southern regions of the United States struggled to find a mutually acceptable solution to the slavery issue. Unfortunately, little common ground could be found. The cotton-oriented...

The Compromise of 1850 was a series of laws that attempted to resolve the territorial and slavery controversies arising from the Mexican-American War (1846–48). The five laws balanced the interests of the slave states of the South and the free...

By Mark J. Stegmaier. (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1996. Pp. xii, 434. $39.00.) Readers may be surprised by the thesis of this book. The Fugitive Slave Act, the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, the admission...

By John Ashworth. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp. xii, 520. $64.95.) This first of a projected two volumes discusses abolitionism, the pro-slavery argument, and the causes of the Civil War, which are "best understood in terms derived from Marxism" W....

Today is Wednesday, March 7, the 66th day of 2007. There are 299 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On March 7, 1965, a march by civil rights demonstrators was broken up in Selma, Ala., by state troopers and a sheriff's posse.On this date:In...

Describes how the Compromise of 1850 affected America's history. Examines the westward movement which was a catalyst for the Compromise. Discusses how it affected the debate about slavery in the western territories, the free black population, the Underground Railroad, and forced abolitionists to take action.

Essay discusses the issues that led to the compromise of 1850.