[jlogajan]

The "free states" considered them less than human as a ploy to dilute the southern voting bloc, not much honor on either side I'd say.

The unfortunate compromise was agreeing to tolerate slavery at all. Reducing the power of the southern slave holding states to maintain and spread slavery by any means was to the good.

[tet68]

the power of the southern slave holding states to maintain and spread slavery by any means

I see, they were FORCING people to hold slaves.

[FreedomCalls]

The unfortunate compromise was agreeing to tolerate slavery at all.

Without that agreement there would have been no United States to begin with. We would have probably ended up with two or more countries from the get go. France would probably have retained Louisiana. We would have had a Balkanized North America looking more like South America with a bunch of small ineffective powerless nation states (Mexico would be the largest retaining California through Texas). I shudder at the impact of that fragmenting of North America on the history of the 20th Century.