By 1854, there were 19 free states in the United States, where slavery was prohibited. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had established a line that delineated free and slave territories, but tensions were growing over the issue of slavery as new territories were being considered for statehood. This period saw significant conflict over the expansion of slavery, culminating in events like the Kansas-Nebraska Act later that year. Thus, while 19 states were officially free, the national debate over slavery was intensifying.
15 slave states and 19 free states during the American Civil War
The Potomac divided the Confederacy from the Union, although Maryland was a slave-state, and so was DC at the beginning. The Ohio River divided the slave-states from free soil.
Slave StatesTexasMontanaArkansasLouisianaMississippiKentuckyTennesseeAlabamaGeorgiaFloridaSouth CarolinaNorth CarolinaVirginiaMarylandDelawareFree StatesCaliforniaOregonMinnesotaIowaWisconsinIllinoisMichiganOhioPennsylvaniaNew YorkVermontMaineNew HampshireMassachusettsRhode IslandConnecticutNew JerseyThe rest weren't organized enough to be considered slave states or free states.Montana was not a slave state or a state of any kind during the Civil War. Missouri, however, was a Slave State that did not secede.
So the balance of slave to free states were equal in congress
The line that established the division between free states and slave states was the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which drew a latitude line at 36°30′ north. States north of this line, except for Missouri, were designated as free states, while those to the south were allowed to permit slavery. This compromise aimed to maintain the balance of power between free and slave states in the U.S. Congress. However, it was eventually rendered ineffective by later legislation, such as the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
Missouri, Arkansas, Flordia, and Texas
By 1854, there were 15 slave states and 19 free states in the United States. The expansion of territories and the debates over whether to allow slavery in new states led to significant tensions, especially with the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This act allowed territories to decide for themselves whether to permit slavery, further complicating the balance between free and slave states.
15 slave states and 19 free states during the American Civil War
After 1854, the Missouri Compromise, which was the attempt to balance the number of free states and slave states between the Northern and Southern states of the United States, was relinquished and replaced by the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
The Potomac divided the Confederacy from the Union, although Maryland was a slave-state, and so was DC at the beginning. The Ohio River divided the slave-states from free soil.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was proposed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, in order to create the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and to ensure that future settlers in those territories would have the authority to determine whether slavery would be permitted with these territories.
The Kansas - Nebraska Act of 1854 enabled voters in the US Territories of Kansas and Nebraska vote as to whether be free or slave States once they entered the Union.
The "Border States" were slave states.
Slave StatesTexasMontanaArkansasLouisianaMississippiKentuckyTennesseeAlabamaGeorgiaFloridaSouth CarolinaNorth CarolinaVirginiaMarylandDelawareFree StatesCaliforniaOregonMinnesotaIowaWisconsinIllinoisMichiganOhioPennsylvaniaNew YorkVermontMaineNew HampshireMassachusettsRhode IslandConnecticutNew JerseyThe rest weren't organized enough to be considered slave states or free states.Montana was not a slave state or a state of any kind during the Civil War. Missouri, however, was a Slave State that did not secede.
slave states
Henry Clay's Compromise of 1850 sought to balance the free states and the slave states in balance. The Compromise lost its value with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.