The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 is highly significant, especially in terms of the question of slavery. However, first it allowed the territories in question to split into two states: Kansas and Nebraska. This opened new lands for settlement. The people in these new territories could, more importantly, decide for themselves whether they would allow slavery within their boundaries. (Originally there was a business angle as well, with the hope to introduce the railroad into the territory.)
The act also ended the Missouri Compromise which had been passed in Congress in 1821 by pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions which attempted to control slavery in the West, and other areas in the U.S.
Stephen Douglas, a Democrat of Illinois, drafted the Kansas-Nebraska Act; it allowed the states in the North to decide to end slavery within its states, while the South could still allow slavery in that region. The act soon came under criticism as...
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a tool to placate the "slave powers" of the South.
It was at this point that the new Republican Party was formed to oppose the act and stop the spread of slavery in the United States. It became a strong political party in the North.
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First, what was the Kansas-Nebraska Act? In 1854 the question of what to do with all the unorganized lands that the United States owned. Would slavery be allowed in those lands or not? How to decide...
Stephen Douglas, the Illinois Senator, came up with what was to be known as the "Kansas-Nebraska Act." This law would create the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and allow the people who moved there to vote on whether they wanted slavery or not. Sounds like a good compromise, but in the end it didn't work out so hot.
Both sides of the slavery debate (abolitionists and pro slavery) rushed to move people into the states to win the vote. Pro Slavery people largely came from Missouri while Anti-slavery people came from further East. It was such a hot issue that the two groups came into bloody conflict with one-another. At one point, two separate governments were set up in different towns (one free, one slavery.) There's a reason they called it "Bleeding Kansas."
In one instance, an abolitionist named John Brown "captured" five pro-slavery farmers and murdered them in retaliation for murders committed by pro-slavery forces.
In the end, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a Free State, but the turmoil caused by the law actually helped further fracture the nation and propelled the country toward civil war. it brought to a head the bitter divide that was cracking the country in two.
How did the Kansas-Nebraska Act impact the North and South?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act proposed that these territories, after being organized, should be allowed to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery. This principle, called popular sovereignty, was espoused by the bill's author, Stephen Douglas, an Illinois Democrat who hoped that opening the region to settlement might lead to the construction of a transcontinental railroad with its terminus in Chicago. The bill outraged many in the North because it repealed the 1820 Missouri Compromise, which had banned slavery in territories within the old Louisiana Purchase above a line drawn at 36'30 latitude. Many of those angered by the Act formed the Republican Party, which was created for the express purpose of arresting the spread of slavery. Southerners generally supported the bill, but eventually rejected its core idea of popular sovereignty due to the possibility that a territory could ban slavery from its borders. As it turned out, popular sovereignty in practice was catastrophic. Pro-slavery Missourians poured into Kansas to establish a pro-slavery government there against the wishes of a majority of Kansans. Bloodshed ensued in what became known as "Bleeding Kansas."
How did the Kansas-Nebraska Act affect the South?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act affected the South. This law created two new territories. They were the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. In these territories, people would vote to determine if slavery would or wouldn’t exist. This concept was known as popular sovereignty. These territories were North of the 36°30’ line. The Missouri Compromise banned slavery, except in Missouri, in any area that was North of this line. Now, with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, it was possible for slavery to exist North of this line. This opened up more areas to where slavery could potentially spread. If the people voted to have slavery, slavery would be allowed to spread to these areas.
The South was affected by the Kansas-Nebraska Act in another way. After the law was passed, the Republican Party formed. This was a northern political party that was against the spread of slavery. By 1860, the Republican Party would win the presidency with the election of Abraham Lincoln. The election of Abraham Lincoln led to the secession of the southern states, which led to the start of the Civil War.