An Early Threat of Secession: The Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Nullification Crisis

Americans affirmed their independence with the ringing declaration that “all men are created equal.” But some of them owned African slaves, and were unwilling to give them up as they formed new federal and state governments. After completing this lesson about the Missouri Compromise (1820) and the subsequent Nullification Crisis (1832), students will gain a better understanding of how the controversies over slavery's expansion and federal tariffs further entrenched the dividing line between northern and southern interests.