Leading up to Kansas-Nebraska Act

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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
  

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Two Governments Continued

• Antislavery settlers elected own governor and
  legislature
• Two governments resulted in chaos
• Armed gangs roamed the territory

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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

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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

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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

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Dred Scott Case

• Scotts 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

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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

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Dred Scott Case Continued

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

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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

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Reaction to Dred Scott Case

• Northerners worried now slavery could spread to
  the West

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