What is the kansas-nebraska act about?

Answer 1

It was hoped that the Compromise of 1850 would end the debate over slavery in the western states and territories. However, in 1854 this debate would surface again. Stephen Douglas, a senator from Illinois, guided a very controversial bill through Congress. This bill became known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Senator Douglas, as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, wanted to see the territories west of Missouri and Iowa opened for settlement. All of this land was north of the line established by the Missouri Compromise. However, instead of this land becoming free states, Douglas proposed the idea of popular sovereignty. This would let the people to decide whether or not they wanted slavery. In 1854, after several weeks of debate, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by Congress. The immediate impact was that it divided the Nebraska Territory into two different territories, Kansas and Nebraska. The Act also allowed the people of each territory to vote whether or not slavery would be allowed in the state or not. By allowing the people decide the issue of slavery in these two states, the Kansas-Nebraska Act made the Missouri Compromise null and void by allowing slavery to expand north of the 36'30 latitude line. Southerners were extremely happy about the Kansas-Nebraska Act because it allowed the possibility of more slave states being added to the Union. Southerners hoped that slave owners from Missouri would move into Kansas, eventually making it a slave state. In contrast, Northerners were outraged at this act because it repealed the Missouri Compromise. In addition, it allowed slavery to possibly spread into land that had been considered free for over 30 years. Since the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed popular sovereignty to decide the issue of slavery, Kansas became a brief preview of the terrible years that were soon to come. Both pro and anti slavery parties moved into Kansas. In 1855, Kansas held elections to choose law makers, the people who would construct either pro or antislavery laws. Proslavery forces won the election by several thousand fraudulent votes. These new elected officials quickly moved to establish laws that supported slavery. Antislavery settlers denied the legitimacy of the election and elected their own governor and law makers. Basically, at this point Kansas had two governments; one proslavery and the other antislavery. Both governments sent out armed men who would roam the land looking for fights with the opposing force. This chaos came to a head in 1856, after a gang of proslavery men raided the antislavery town of Lawrence, destroying homes and a newspaper. In retaliation an abolitionist named John Brown decided to take action. Brown and his four sons had moved to Kansas to help it become a free state. Claiming that God told him to punish those who supported slavery, Brown, his four sons, and two other men, decided to raid the proslavery town of Pottawatomie Creek. There, in the middle of the night, this party drug five proslavery settlers from their houses and brutally murdered them. This only led to further violence and by late 1856, over 200 people in Kansas had been killed. From then on, newspapers would refer to the territory as Bleeding Kansas.