Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854

The Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854 revoked the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. Popular sovereignty basically means they allowed the settlers of a federal territory to decide the slavery question without interference from congress. It produced a violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas,” as proslavery and antislavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote.

The Kansas Nebraska Act 


By 1854 there were 15 slave states, and 19 free states. Kansas revealed it was a free statin January of 1861 only weeks after 8 southern states seceded from the union. 

Kansas Nebraska Act and part realignment


Senator of Stephen Douglas Illinois proposed a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska, a vast area of land that would become Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, and the Dakotas. He believed the settlers of a territory should decide the slavery question without the opinions from the rest of the world. The bill raised the possibility that slavery could be extended into territories where it had once been banned. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act induced party realignment and violence, furthering the sectional divide that ultimately erupted in the Civil War. 

Stephen A. Douglas | Biography, Politics, Debates, & Facts | Britannica

Kansas Nebraska Act History



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