Leading up to Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Compromise of 1850 dealt w/ Mexican Cession (CA & New Mexico Territory, Utah Territory)

• Did not deal with land that was part of the LA Purchase (Missouri Compromise of 1820)

Kansas-Nebraska Act - 1854 • Senator Douglas - IL proposed

setting up a government for Nebraska Territory by dividing it into 2 territories - Kansas and Nebraska(part of LA Purchase)

• Settlers in each territory decide issue of slavery by popular sovereignty

Reaction to Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Southerners hoped slave owners from MO would move into Kansas and make it a slave state

• Northerners - MO Compromise already banned slavery in Kansas and Nebraska

Reaction to Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Kansas-Nebraska Act would overturn/repeal Missouri Compromise

• Slavery could now spread to areas that were free for over 30 years

• Some challenged Fugitive Slave Act

Kansas consisted of …• Abolitionists brought over 1,000

settlers from New England

• Proslavery settlers also came

• Proslavery groups from MO rode across border - Border Ruffians - fought with antislavery groups

Two Governments• 1855 Kansas held elections for

governor and legislature• Border Ruffians voted illegally

and helped elect proslavery legislature- passed laws to support slavery

• Antislavery settlers refused to accept new laws

Two Governments Continued …

• Antislavery settlers elected own governor and legislature

• Two governments resulted in chaos

• Armed gangs roamed the territory

“Bleeding Kansas”• Proslavery men raided town of

Lawrence - (founded by abolitionists) destroyed homes and smashed press of Free-Soil newspaper - 1856

• John Brown - abolitionist - and other men attack town of Pottawatomie Creek - murder 5 proslavery settlers at night

“Bleeding Kansas”• Both sides engaged in guerrilla

warfare - hit and run tactics

• Late 1856 over 200 people killed

• Newspapers started calling the territory “Bleeding Kansas”

Dred Scott Case • Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri • He moved with his owner to Illinois

and Wisconsin Territory - slavery not allowed

• Scott returned to MO with his owner who then died

• Antislavery lawyers helped Scott file a lawsuit

Dred Scott Case

• Scott’s lawyers argued that since he lived in a free state/territory, he became a free man

• 1857 - Supreme Court decided - Scott could not file a lawsuit b/c a slave was not a citizen

Dred Scott Case Continued…

• Slaves considered property - (5th Amendment - cannot have property taken away w/o applying the law)

• Congress did not have the power to outlaw slavery in any territory

Dred Scott Case Continued…

• MO Compromise - unconstitutional b/c denies people right to their property

Reaction to Dred Scott Case

• Slave owners - slavery now legal in all territories

• African Americans - condemned ruling - held public meetings

• Northerners hoped that slavery would eventually die out if restricted to the South

Reaction to Dred Scott Case

• Northerners worried now slavery could spread to the West