How Popular Sovereignty Saved Kansas

We’ve all heard of the Kansas Nebraska Act. But do we know what it did for the territory?

In 1820, Missouri decided it was time to become a state. Missouri wanted to become a slave state. The US government was worried about the imbalance of slave states and free states. To keep the balance of slave/free, Missouri was allowed to enter as a slave state, and Maine was admitted as a free state. According to civilwar.org, Missouri and the government came to an agreement that, from 1820 on, every new state established above the 36’30 parallel would be free states and every new state below would become slave states.

May 30, 1854, Nebraska and Kansas territories were to become states. Nebraska would automatically be a free state. Some in Kansas however, wanted it to be a slave state. Missouri was in on it as well. They also wanted Kansas to become a slave state. Fights, riots, and heckles broke out. The entire state was a war central. The violence led to what is known as “Bleeding Kansas”.

The US government did not want to get in the trouble, so they made an act of which was called the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Kansas Nebraska Act let the people of the state decide for themselves whether it was a free state or slave state. This was called “popular sovereignty”. Popular sovereignty tried to solve the problem and save Kansas from war. The state was opened to slavery by principle of popular sovereignty, but ultimately it became a free state.