The court also declared the 1820 Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thus permiting slavery in all of the country's territories. The case before the court was that of Dred Scott v. Sanford.

In 1820 the Missouri Compromise was passed to sort out this issue. By 1819, the US was made up of 22 states - evenly split between Slave States and Free States. In November 1819, Missouri ...

Major Acts: The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery within their borders, nullified the Missouri ...