LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Kansas-Nebraska Act: Slavery
built 606 days ago
Probably the most important result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was its language concerning the contentious issue of slavery. Proposed by Stephen A. Douglas, and signed by president Franklin Pierce, the bill divided the region into two territories. Territory north of the 40th parallel was called Nebraska Territory, and territory south of the 40th parallel was called Kansas Territory. The most controversial aspect of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was that each territory would decide for themselves whether or not to permit slavery. This stipulation repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which stated that slavery was prohibited north of 36° 30'.
Source:
The most controversial provision in the Kansas-Nebraska Act was the stipulation that settlers in Kansas Territory would decide whether to allow slavery within its borders. This provision repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had prohibited slavery in any new states created north of latitude 36°30'. Predictably, it ... led to violence between the Northerners and Southerners that rushed to settle there.
Source:
The Kansas-Nebraska Act is arguably the most consequential piece of legislation ever enacted by Congress. It ignited four years of turmoil between northern and southern settlers in Kansas that made "Bleeding Kansas" an issue in the 1856 election and disrupted the Democratic party during James Buchanan's subsequent presidential administration. It split the Whig party permanently along North/South lines. It helped start a massive voter realignment against the Democrats in the North in the elections of 1854 and 1855 from which the Democratic party would not recover until the congressional elections of 1874. And reaction against it launched the Republican party in 1854, an exclusively northern and overtly antisouthem, anti-slavery-extension party that would elect Lincoln president in 1860, thereby provoking southern secession and the Civil War.
Source:
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opened new lands for people, repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and allowed the settlers to decide whether or not to have slavery within those territories. The initial purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to create opportunities for a Midwestern Transcontinental Railroad. It was not problematic until popular sovereignty was written into the proposal. The new Republican Party, which formed in reaction against allowing slavery where it had been forbidden, emerged as the dominant force throughout the North. The act was designed by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. The act established that settlers could decide for themselves whether to allow slavery, in the name of "popular sovereignty" or rule of the people.
Source:
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was established on May 30, 1854. This act created two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska. The act permitted Kansas to allow slavery in contradiction of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had forbidden slavery within the Louisiana Purchase lands that were north of the 36º 30'N line. The second territory, Nebraska, was a "free," or a non-slavery area.
Source:
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by Congress, with Alexander Stephens playing a key role. This act allowed for popular sovereignty to decide whether each of the two territories would be free or slave, effectively nullifying the Missouri Compromise of 1820 - which had prohibited slavery (except for Missouri) north of a certain latitude line; the Kansas and Nebraska territories were north of the line. One of the results of the passage of this act was the rapid growth of the anti-slavery Republican party. The Georgia legislature passed a resolution supporting the act.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Slavery