Kansas-Nebraska Act

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by Congress in 1854. Like the Compromise of 1850, it dealt with the problem of slavery in newly formed territories. The act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and gave the people of these territories the right to regulate matters related to slavery. It also provided that before the territories became states, the people of each territory could decide whether to allow slavery in the new states. The decision process was called popular sovereignty. Many Northerners opposed the act. They feared that once slavery was in a territory, it was there to stay.

The first test of popular sovereignty came in Kansas, where a majority of the population voted against becoming a slave state. But proslavery forces refused to accept the decision. The situation quickly erupted into violence. The violence spread to Washington, D.C., where in 1856 an antislavery senator, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, was beaten unconscious by Preston Brooks, a proslavery representative from South Carolina. In the end, Kansas joined the Union as a free state in 1861.