The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Warm-up
Put in your own words the
FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT
Did it favor the north or south?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
 Stephen A. Douglas drafts bill to organize territorial
governments for the Nebraska Territory
 Proposed that it be divided into two territories – Nebraska and
Kansas
 To gain Southern support, Douglas proposes to use popular
sovereignty to decide issue of slavery in territories
 Popular sovereignty = residents vote to decide on an issue
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
 If the bill passed, it would replace the Missouri Compromise
 Missouri Compromise did not allow people to vote on slavery
in territories
 Southerners were thrilled with this act and excited to repeal
the Missouri Compromise
 The act angered opponents of slavery, but it still passed
 This act would soon turn Kansas into a battle ground over
slavery
“Bleeding Kansas”
 A mad rush of both proslavery and antislavery settlers rushed
into the Kansas Territory to vote on territorial legislature
 Election of 1855
 Proslavery settlers outnumbered antislavery settlers
 Proslavery forces still feared losing the election
 5000 Missourians come to Nebraska and vote illegally
 As a result, Kansas legislature was dominated with proslavery
representatives
“Bleeding Kansas”
 Antislavery settlers boycotted the election results, and
formed their own government
 Political authority was in dispute, so both sides armed
themselves
 Violence broke out in Kansas
 Sack of Lawrence- proslavery men burned & ransacked bldgs
 Pottawatomie Massacre-abolitionist John Brown retaliates. They
dragged five proslavery men from their homes and hacked them
to death.
 Violence continued for three years
Meet John Brown. Martyr or Rebel?
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 Harriet Beecher Stowe
published Uncle Tom’s Cabin in
1852 to dramatically portray
the moral issues of slavery
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel…
 Story focuses on Uncle Tom, an respected older slave, and his life
under three owners
 Two were kind, the third was cruel
 Book was popular in the North, but Southerners felt the book
falsely criticized the South and Slavery
 Uncle Tom's Cabin was not the first anti-slavery novel, but it was
by far the most successful. In the first year over 300,000 copies of
her book were sold. In 1856, over two million copies were sold.
Her book was translated into 13 different languages.
 When President Lincoln went to meet her he said, "So you're the
little lady that started this big war."
Uncle Tom’s Cabin Activity
 Read the plot overview of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 Make a series of drawings to illustrate the story OR