What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act? Why was it so politically important? What does the conflict in Kansas tell us about the issue of slavery at the time?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ideal Answer: The ideal answer should:
1. Define the Kansas-Nebraska Act as a compromise measure to satisfy northern and southern state issues over the expansion of slavery.
2. Explain that in 1854 Senator Stephen Douglas introduced a bill in Congress to organize the Kansas and Nebraska Territories that soon provoked white settlers in Kansas to kill each other over slavery.
3. Explain that Douglas's proposal—known as "popular sovereignty"—angered many northerners because it created the possibility that slavery might expand to areas where it had been prohibited. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 banned slavery north of 36° 30' line of latitude. Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act would repeal that limitation and allow settlers in Kansas, which was north of that line, to vote on slavery there.
4. Conclude that Douglas managed to muster enough votes in Congress to pass the bill, but its enactment destroyed an already divided Whig Party and drove a wedge between the North and South over the issue of the expansion of slavery outside of the southern states.