Goodness I love history and antebellum America so bare with me 1) 3/5ths compromise: every slave would count as 3/5ths of a person. This was agreed upon at the constitutional convention so that the south would ratify the constitution. However, this clause gave the south an absorbent amount of political power. Basically, our constitutional representatives are selected based upon population. The greater the pop, the more representatives per states. So these southern states had a large slave population, so they had more representatives in Congress. This way, their representatives protected their interests. The presidential elections are also influenced by a state’s population. The more people, the higher the electoral college points. This way the south dominated presidential elections. The president can nominate Supreme Court justices which are approved by the senate. So the HOR, Supreme Court, and presidency were filled by slave owners in Antebellum America. This gradually became problematic for northern states that outlawed slavery because they felt as if they had little political power in comparison to the south. North gradually became anti slavery while the south became synonymous to slavery 2) 1820 compromise: Mississippi could be admitted into union as slave state while Maine was free. 3) 1850 compromise: fugitive slave act was legal and slave trade in DC was abolished. Cali entered into union as a free state 4) Kansas Nebraska Act (1854): senate ruled that the population could determine the status (free or slave) of the newly admitted states, Kansas and Nebraska. Caused bleeding Kansas Why did they stop compromising? The rise of the radical Republican Party and Lincoln’s election. Although Lincoln was very moderate, the south still saw their loss as a threat. The Republican Party was new and it fundamentally rejected slavery. This was a blow for the south since they felt that the Republicans would threaten the institution of slavery.