Slave and free states

Early history

In the South, Kentucky was created as a slave state from Virginia (1792), and Tennessee was created as a slave state from North Carolina (1796). By 1804, before the creation of new states from the federal western territories, the number of slave and free states was eight each. By the time of Missouri Compromise of 1820, the dividing line between the slave and free states was called the Mason–Dixon line (between Maryland and Pennsylvania), with its westward extension being the Ohio River.