The Kansas-Nebraska Act

• In what way did the Kansas-Nebraska Act contribute to the outbreak of the Civil War? Do you think the war still would have occurred if the Kansas-Nebraska Act had not been passed? Explain
  
  
  


• Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
  Democrat
  Cuba/Nicaragua
  Transcontinental Railroad
  Kansas-Nebraska Act
  Lecompton Constitution w/Kansas
  Served 1 Term
  
  
  


• Popular sovereignty: this compromise solution was first proposed during the time of the Wilmot Proviso: the residents of each territory had the option of determining whether it would be a free or slave state; a part of the Compromise of 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.Stephen Douglas a strong advocator.
  
  


• Stephen A. Douglas: American politician known for his debates with Abraham Lincoln prior to the election of 1860. Douglas was an advocate of the annexation of Mexico, who aroused the question of slavery in territories with the development of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. He was also a strong supporter of the Compromise of 1850.
  
  
  




• The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a bill like the Compromise of 1850.
  



• On May 30, 1854 the territories of Kansas and Nebraska wanted to become states. The only question left to be decided was whether they would have slavery or not.
  



• Stephen Arnold Douglas, the Democratic Senator of Illinois, strongly believed that the people of the territories should decide for themselves whether they wanted slavery and repealed the Missouri Compromise.
  



• Proslavery and antislavery groups fought many wars, each side wanting to gain control of Kansas so they could vote for it to become a slave state or a free state. These wars are known as "Bloody Kansas." Neither side knew it, but with each day of fighting, they were getting a step closer to the Civil War.
  



• Bloody Kansas, also known as Border War, was a conflict in Kansas territory between antislavery Free states and proslavery groups.




• The act enforced popular sovereignty upon the new territories but was opposed by Northern Democrats and Whigs.
  



• The bill later became a law on of the territories could decide by popular vote whether to allow slavery to continue in a place when it becomes a state.
  
  


• The act caused Northern abolitionists to fight against proslavery Southerners.
  



• The act caused the Whig Party to split into northern and southern branches.
  
  


• The northern branch wanted to end slavery and the southern branch wanted slavery to continue.
  
  


• The Antislavery Army led by John Brown, an abolitionist, wiped out the proslavery troops. John Brown led one famous battle on the settlers at Pottawatomie Creek. This attack was called the Pottawatomie Massacre and occurred in May 1856.
  



• Northerners did not have a need for slaves because there they manufactured (shipping and bankers).
  
  


• Southerners wanted to expand slavery because they were based on it for the faming and plantations.
  



• When people in Missouri voted in Kansas, the proslavery Party won control, and Kansas was voted to become a slave state. Later, Kansas asked Congress for statehood as a slave state. But the Missouri Compromise did not let slave above the line.
  
  


• While the proslavery Party was upset and angry over this decision, the antislavery Party quickly took control of Kansas.
  
  


• The north and south argued and fought over the question of slavery each time a new state wanted to enter the Union. The south finally got so tired of all the fighting and arguing that they decided to break away from the U.S. and be their own country. Fighting over whether the south would be its own country finally started the Civil War.
  
  


• http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson_images/lesson661/Kans_Neb_Debate.pdf