Kansas-Nebraska Act

Approved on May 30, 1854, the Kansas Nebraska Act established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and allowed settlers to decide on the legality of slavery through “popular sovereignty.” This repealed the Missouri Compromise and increased sectional tensions by opening northern lands to potential…

<p><span class="deck">Tempers flare and violence reigns in the pre–Civil War battleground of Kansas.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">Over the question of whether Missouri should be admitted to the Union as a free or slave state in 1820, creative moderates brokered an ingenious compromise that averted civil war.</span></p>