Compromise of 1850

A package of five laws addressing slavery and territorial questions after the Mexican–American War, including California’s admission as a free state.

Mexican–American War: A war between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 that transferred vast territories to the United States. Its territorial settlement created the central question of whether slavery could expand westward.
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: A federal law requiring the return of people who escaped enslavement and penalizing assistance to them. It was the compromise’s strongest concession to slaveholding interests and prompted intense northern resistance.
Stephen A. Douglas: An Illinois senator who advanced popular sovereignty and helped pass the separate bills of the Compromise of 1850. Douglas divided Clay’s omnibus proposal into bills that could secure separate majorities.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 antislavery novel depicting the violence of slavery and the separation of enslaved families. The Fugitive Slave Act helped make the novel’s treatment of slavery and its enforcement especially urgent.
Wilmot Proviso: An 1846 proposal to prohibit slavery in territory acquired from Mexico. Its repeated failure showed how sharply Congress divided over slavery in the new territories.
California Admission Act: The 1850 law admitting California to the United States as a free state. California’s admission was the package’s central free-state concession.
Millard Fillmore: The thirteenth president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. Fillmore supported the settlement and signed its bills into law.
Personal liberty laws: State laws designed to protect free Black people and restrict enforcement of fugitive slave laws. Northern states enacted or strengthened these protections in response to the federal act.
Popular sovereignty: The principle that residents of a territory should decide whether to permit slavery. It offered one proposed way to resolve territorial slavery disputes, though the compromise used it selectively.
Territorial government: A system of administration for United States territories before they become states. The package organized governments for New Mexico and Utah without immediately deciding slavery there.

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