Explain the role of "compromises leading up to the Civil War

Slavery could be allowed in new Western Territories. Fugitive Slave Law allowed southerners to go into Northerner states and retrieve former slaves. The Compromise overturned the Missouri Compromise and left the overall issue of slavery unsettled.

The Compromise of 1850 was made up of five bills that attempted to resolve disputes over slavery in new territories added to the United States in the wake of the Mexican-American War (1846-48). It admitted California as a free state, left Utah and New Mexico to decide for themselves whether to be a slave state or a free state, defined a new Texas-New Mexico boundary, and made it easier for slaveowners to recover runways under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The Compromise of 1850 was the mastermind of Whig senator Henry Clay and Democratic senator Stephan Douglas. Lingering resentment over its provisions contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War.

https://www.bethunenola.org/pdf/curriculum_information/Social_Studies//07_7th_Grade/9_%20Slavery%20Compromise.pd

She was one of the world's first female heads of state.