What is popular sovereignty and how does it apply to the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

Answer 1

'Popular Sovereignty' was the vote-winning phrase dreamed-up by Stephen Douglas of Illinois, in his attempt to resolve the issue of possible slavery in the new Western states, when it became clear that the Compromise of 1850 was not going to work.

He said that the people of each new state should vote on whether it should be slave or free.

This sounded reasonable enough (to some), but he underestimated the danger of allowing one state to vote at a time. It meant that that one state would beocme a magnet for every terrorist in America. That was how they got 'Bleeding Kansas'.

Answer 2

Popular Sovereignty decreed that the new states would decide the question of slavery within their borders for themselves.

'Popular Sovereignty' was the term coined by Senator Stephen Douglas to indicate a vote by the population of each new state, to determine whether it would be slave or free. The Kansas-Nebraska Act enshrined Popular Sovereignty, and the voting went ahead for the first time in Kansas.

This showed that the idea had a serious flaw. If only one state at a time was voting, all of the opponents from both sides would descend on that one thinly-populated area to make trouble. At best, they would buy up cheap properties in order to gain the vote legally ('squatters'). At worst, they would intimidate voters and try to declare the results to be rigged. It led to terrible violence ("Bloody Kansas"), and it was never tried again.

Answer 3

It was a proviso that allowed individual states to choose their status as Pro or Anti slavery states.