The Missouri Compromise

(36° 30' NORTH LATITUDE)

This marker sits on the Missouri Compromise line which by an Act of Congress on March 6, 1820, enabled Missouri to be admitted to the Union as a Slave State. But, the Act forbade slavery in the rest of the Louisiana purchase North of the 36° 30" North Latitude. The proposal marked the first great debate over the Territorial Expansion of slavery.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of May 30, 1854, repealed section #8 of the Missouri Compromise , which was the most important provision and created the Kansas and Nebraska Territories.

The 36° 30' North Latitude is the south border of Missouri, except for the Bootheel, and the south border of the Oklahoma Panhandle.