Dred Scott v. Sandford: The Decision and Its Implications For Americans living in the years before the Civil War, slavery and the question of its containment, abolition, or perpetuation became top of mind. central political importance. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, unanimously passed by Congress in an effort to outline the process for admitting statehood, essentially banned slavery in the newly admitted territories, establishing the Ohio River as dividing line between free states and slave states (“Northwest Ordinances”). Although the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 did not definitively rule on the question of slavery, it created the conditions necessary for a balance between free and slave states. In 1819, the United States consisted of eleven slave states and eleven free states; However, Missouri's subsequent demand for statehood threatened to upset the balance, leading to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, in which Missouri was admitted as a slave state while Maine became a free state ("The Compromise of Missouri"). The compromise also included a provision establishing an imaginary new boundary between free and slave states, which remained in place until the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The inconsistent legal status of slavery from state to state other led to confusion regarding the status of slaves traveling with their owners to free states, leading slaves, like Dred Scott in Dred Scott v. Sandford, to sue for their freedom. Scott was the slave of a military surgeon and had been taken from Missouri to posts in Illinois and Minnesota in the 1830s before returning to Missouri. Since the Missouri Compromise of 1820 had declared the Midwestern region, including Minnesota, free, Scott petitioned for his freedom in the middle of a paper......men who were largely apathetic toward the slavery; however, after Dred Scott's decision, a new fledgling political party was created, with abolition included in its platform. The radical nature of the Dred Scott decision caused many people previously undecided on the issue of slavery to join abolitionist forces, creating a new political opponent for Southern Democrats. In virtually every aspect of American politics, the Dred Scott affair triggered and reinforced the regionalism present at all times. Dred Scott v. Sandford upended the delicate peace that had been achieved in Congress in the form of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and fueled resentment and anger between those in the North and South. The Dred Scott decision was the driving force behind the final events leading to the Civil War, eliminating any possibility of lasting compromise..