File talk:US Slave Free 1789-1861.gif

Map issues
Kansas became a STATE (no longer a territory) 1861-JAN-29 (before Lincoln's inauguration) Nevada Territory was created 1861-MAR-02 (before Lincoln's inauguration) - not as a slave territory - but with popular sovereignty about slavery The Wilmot Proviso image is misleading - it never became law - but some would get that impression from the map - ALSO:the 2nd 1846 image has lost territorial boundaries--JimWae (talk) 07:33, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

Louisiana was a French colony, not a Spanish one, at the time of its incorporation into the United States. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.21.230.68 (talk) 11:21, 24 April 2013 (UTC)


 * According to Louisiana (New Spain), the territory was secretly transferred back to France in1800, but remained under Spanish administration. The eventual purchase by the US was completed in 1804, so the presentation in map is technically correct. jxm (talk) 14:44, 24 August 2013 (UTC)

West Virginia became a "free" state on June 20th, 1863, according to other entries in Wikipedia (I originally thought that this pertained to your map, but I guess it is outside of the date-range). Leftblank15 (talk) 23:16, 20 June 2013 (UTC)leftblank15

Platte Purchase (1836) not reflected on map border for Missouri
The images from 1837 up until 1861 are incorrect because they do not show the Platte Purchase of the northwestern strip of Missouri. This annexation in 1836 completed the modern borders of Missouri. It is unusual in that it occurred after the state had already been admitted.

Also, as JimWae noted earlier, Kansas should be shown as a state, not a territory, in 1861. Red Harvest (talk) 06:31, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

New York showing as 1799 misleading; add start and end maps
The article on Sojourner Truth states "The state of New York began, in 1799, to legislate the abolition of slavery, although the process of emancipating New York slaves was not complete until July 4, 1827."

While the map does have the disclaimer about delayed freedom in New York and elsewhere, that disclaimer does not necessarily appear wherever this animation is used, for example on the page for slave and free states.

But actually a disclosure everywhere is not as good as a clear visual picture of the transition periods. It would give a much better picture if transition states such as New York were shown as blue and pink striped during the transition period instead of as blue, similar to what was done for the Wilmot Proviso.

I also respectfully suggest that there be a map added prior to the first map showing all colonies where slavery was legal. Even though that means all the colonies would show as pink, it gives a clearer picture that there was a time when all colonies were slave states. It is not just that five seconds is not enough to process that Pennsylvania and several New England states had recently abolished slavery as there would not be time to read all of the dates in all five of the applicable states and process them mentally. It is also that choice of maps gives the impression that the initial five free states were always free, which is not true.

Thisisnotatest (talk) 06:10, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

Map obscured by legend
Placing the legend over the map makes it impossible to see where the borders are between slave and free territories in the West. I suggest moving the legend off the map portion. Thisisnotatest (talk) 08:29, 13 December 2015 (UTC)