History of North America

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What did the compromise of 1850 try to establish?

The Compromise of 1850 was a series of laws passed by the U.S. Congress that aimed to resolve the issue of slavery in the territories acquired by the United States as a result of the Mexican-American War. The compromise was based on the principle of popular sovereignty, which held that the people of a territory should decide for themselves whether to allow slavery.

The main provisions of the Compromise of 1850 were:

* California was admitted to the Union as a free state.

* The New Mexico Territory and the Utah Territory were organized without any mention of slavery, leaving the question of whether slavery would be allowed to be decided by the people of those territories.

* The slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia.

* A new fugitive slave law was passed, which made it easier for slave owners to recapture slaves who had escaped to free states.

The Compromise of 1850 was a temporary solution to the issue of slavery, but it did not resolve the underlying tensions between the North and the South. These tensions would eventually lead to the American Civil War.

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