Kansas-Nebraska Act

In 1854 Sen. Douglas wanted to organize Nebraska into a territory and build a railroad from Illinois through Nebraska tp Pacific in increase settlement in West.

Sen. Douglas wanted to divide the territory into the Nebraska Territory and the Kansas Territory; to gain support of the South, he decided slavery could be decided by popular sovereignty

Nebraska was too far north for plantations--people of Nebraska wanted territory without slavery. Kansas was further south and platations could be built there. As soon as the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, thousands of people rushed to claim land in Kansas. This would tip the vote on slavery.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 (10 Stat. 277) created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty whether they would allow slavery within each territory

Battles and killings that resulted after extremests entered Kansas and falsified voting on slavery, creating two Kansas governments, one for and one against slavery.