What was the outcome of the Missouri Compromise?

The outcome of the Missouri Compromise, which was enacted in 1820, included Missouri entering the Union as a slave state and Maine entering as a free state. This was a significant compromise aimed at maintaining the balance of power between slave and free states in the Senate. By admitting these two states simultaneously, legislators sought to ease tensions between the North and the South over the contentious issue of slavery's expansion into new territories.

The Missouri Compromise also established the 36°30′ parallel line, which aimed to delineate future states in the Louisiana Purchase between free and slave territory. This was intended to further manage the balance and prevent conflict over the issue, although it ultimately was a temporary solution to a more profound sectional divide that would intensify in the following decades.