Kansas-Nebraska Act

When

1854

Why

It temporarily avoided a civil war again, popular sovereignty being used as a factor to decide whether the state will be free or a slave state. The slavery issue is becoming worse and more violent. This is igniting the fire of civil war. It effectively repealed both the Missouri Compromise 1820 and Compromise of 1850. It also gave rise to the Republican Party in the north.

Where

Kansas-Nebraska Act: Congress. Bleeding Kansas: Kansas

Who

Stephen Douglas, a senator from Illinois

What

an act that said that two territories should be divided and that the people living in the territories could make their own decision whether or not slavery should be allowed by popular sovereignty. This act led to major violence as people flooded into the territories. Proslavery and antislavery people in Kansas and Nebraska clashed. This led to the nickname, "Bleeding Kansas". Neither state became free or slave.