Congress had a big decision to make as far as slavery goes. They had to decide which states were allowed to have slavery and which states were not allowed to have slavery. The solution to this big problem was the Missouri Compromise. It allowed slavery to expand to the state of Missouri but it banned all slavery in all of the states to the north and to the west of Missouri. The reason they chose to allow slavery in the southern states is because the slaves can work in the cotton fields(which was a huge industry) and that helped the economy of America greatly. Since slaves didn't like their treatment a lot of them tried to escape to the northern states to become free people. If they were caught the were punished severely. The compromise helped contain slavery and from expanding further into the northern lands and that might be a crucial reason why African Americans are free people today.