Kansas-Nebraska Act

US legislation passed by Congress in 1854, regulating the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. By allowing the settlers in the territories to decide for themselves whether or not to permit slavery, the act upset the political balance between North and South established in 1820 by the Missouri Compromise. The Kansas-Nebraska Act helped to start the Civil War, and caused the rise of the Republican Party, which was dedicated to prohibiting slavery in the new territories. See also United States: history 1783-1861, Kansas-Nebraska Bill.

Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed the bill to make the American Indian land west of the Missouri River and north of 37° latitude into the two new territories of Kansas and Nebraska. His bill included the provision of ‘popular sovereignty’, whereby the question of slavery would be decided by the settlers rather than the federal government. The bill directly repealed the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited slavery on these lands, and was met with outrage from many northerners and strong backing from many southerners. After a bitter debate in Congress, President Franklin Pierce supported the bill, and it was passed into law.

After the act went into effect, slavery supporters from Missouri and antislavery settlers from the North poured into Kansas to try to determine the first election and laws on slavery. Proslavery settlers won the election, but antislavery settlers charged them with fraud and held another election. Two opposing state governments were established, violence erupted, and there was a state approaching civil war in Kansas, which became known as ‘Bleeding Kansas’. Eventually Kansas was admitted as a free state just prior to the Civil War.