Potentially, it would upset the balance.
The two sides couldn't seem to agree about how to keep the balance. So Stephen Douglas said why not let the people of each new state vote on whether to be slave or free?
This could have allowed more slave-states, so the Northern Abolitionists were very alarmed. But Kansas voted firmly against slavery.
After the Kansas Nebraska Act.
It allowed them to vote on whether their state should be slave or free.
By local vote
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The issue of expansion of slavery was its expansion and growth into Western territories.
Senator Stephen Douglas helped draft the bills of the Compromise of 1850. His position, which was basically the whole of the compromise, set the northern boundary for slavery at 36°30', created harsher fugitive slave laws and introduced the concept of popular sovereignty for several territories such as Kansas, Utah and New Mexico, wherein the legal residents of those particular territories would determine by voting, whether or not to permit slavery within their borders. This law led directly to the civil conflict known as 'Bleeding Kansas' which pitted pro-slavery settlers against free-soil settlers of that territory.
They didn't want let let slavery spread to the western territories
Slavery is illegal in the modern age in all countries and territories.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed settlers in those territories to decide whether or not to permit slavery through popular sovereignty, overturning the Missouri Compromise's restriction on slavery in certain territories. This led to violent conflicts between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas, known as "Bleeding Kansas."
Settlers of some new territories were able to decide about slavery for themselves.
Study Island: Settlers of some new territories were able to decide about slavery for themselves.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Even though Zachary Taylor was a slave owner himself, he did not push up the expansion of slavery in the new territories.
The Free Soil Party believed that slavery should be restricted in new territories to prevent its expansion. They advocated for free labor and opportunities for white settlers, without competition from slave labor.
Yes, that was the purpose of the act. The result was the flooding of pro and anti forces into each territories to influence the vote. It was a mess.
Pro-slavery settlers fought against anti-slavery settlers.
It created the Nebraska and Kansas territories. Repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Allowed settlers to determine if they wanted slavery or not.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed settlers in those territories to decide the issue of slavery through popular sovereignty, meaning the residents could vote on whether to allow slavery within their borders. This effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which had banned slavery in territories north of a certain latitude. The act led to violent clashes between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers, intensifying tensions over the issue of slavery in the United States.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of May 30th 1854, created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opened new lands, and allowed settlers in those territories to determine if they would allow slavery within their boundaries.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a law passed by Congress in 1854, which divided the states of Missouri and Iowa, and the territory of Minnesota into two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska. It resulted to violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers.