The Missouri Compromise

Children's Literature

In 1820 the United States government faced a critical problem. The citizens of Missouri were petitioning to enter the Union as a newly founded state. On the surface, that possibility held great promise. Nevertheless, as Missourians wished to make their newly founded state one where the institution of slavery was protected, controversy reigned. Eventually, after much concerted debate and negotiation, Missouri did ultimately enter the Union as a sovereign state counterbalanced by a second new state, Maine, which held slavery to be illegal. The Missouri Compromise represented one of the many steps that highlighted the political divisiveness that slavery was breeding within the American nation. Although cooler heads prevailed in 1820-21, the same could not be said for forty years later when a similar set of circumstances resulted in the outbreak of the Civil War. In this illustrated work Michael Burgan tackles the sometimes arcane happenings that led to the Missouri Compromise. This illustrated text is part of a larger series titled "We the People." In this particular book, Michael Burgan does a good job of detailing a complex political process and putting it in its historical context. Readers studying the events that led up to the Civil War will find this an easily digested summary of one of the cornerstone legislative struggles of that era in American history. 2006, Compass Point Books, Ages 9 to 12.
—Greg M. Romaneck