The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)—Senator Stephen Douglas proposed a bill to set up a government in Nebraska Territory. Knowing that southern legislators would not support the creation of a free state he proposed that the territory be divided into Kansas and Nebraska and that the territories be allowed to decide if they would be free or slave states by popular sovereignty as had been done in New Mexico and Utah territories. The proposal upset the North where they felt that the Missouri Compromise had already banned slavery in the region. Southerners supported the act, as they were confident that Kansas would became a slave state. When the act passed, northerners responded in anger and protested against the Fugitive Slave Law. Northerners and Southerners streamed into Kansas wanting control of the territory. Two governments emerged and violence erupted. Violence spread to the Senate floor also, when Congressman Preston Brooks beat Senator Charles Sumner, and abolitionist, until he was unconscious
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