The Kansas-Nebraska Act

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act The Kansas-Nebraska Act was important because, Kansas and Nebraska became slavery Outlawed states. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a bill that dealt with issues of slavery in new territories, like the Compromise of 1850. The territories of Kansas and Nebraska wanted to become states, but the problem was would they become slave or free states. The south wanted Kansas and Nebraska to become slaveholding states because the south wanted slavery to spread across. The north wanted more states of their kind which were free states, because if they had more free states than slave states, the north would gain more power and be able to overrule the south when voting on important decisions in Congress. Stephen Arnold Douglas, a Democratic Senator of Illinois, strongly believed that the people of the territories should decide for themselves whether they wanted slavery in their state. He sponsored the Kansas Nebraska bill and that the settlers of Kansas and Nebraska would vote on if they would have slavery in their state. This was called the popular sovereignty. The debate on slavery became a big issue for most people. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery 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. All the different wars would end up beginning the civil war. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed through congress and became law in May of 1854. The Kansas-Nebraska Act effectively nullified the Missouri Compromise and opened up the Nebraska and Kansas territories to popular sovereignty. After the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters rushed to Kansas to settle.
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