Objective: To examine the causes and effects of the Kansas – Nebraska Act.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
I. The Nebraska Territory was divided into two parts:
Nebraska (NE) and Kansas (KS).
Kansas-Nebraska Act
II. The people of each territory voted on whether or not to
allow slavery. (popular sovereignty)
* The Kansas-Nebraska Act violated the Missouri
Compromise. Both territories were north of 36 , 30’ N and
should NOT have been allowed to have slaves.
“Bleeding Kansas”
Before the vote on slavery:
• Northerners crossed the
border to keep KS a free
state.
• Southerners crossed the
border to make KS a slave
state.
• Both sides claimed
victory on the vote!
On May 19, 1856, Senator Charles Sumner, a Massachusetts
antislavery Republican, addressed the Senate on the…
…explosive issue of whether Kansas should be admitted to
the Union as a slave state or a free state. In his speech,
Sumner identified two Democratic senators as the principal
culprits in this crime—Stephen Douglas of Illinois and
Andrew Butler of South Carolina. He characterized
Douglas to his face as a "noise-some, squat, and nameless
animal . . . not a proper model for an American
senator.” Sumner continued by mocking Senator Butler’s
stance as a man of chivalry, charging him with taking "a
mistress . . . who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to
him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in
his sight—I mean” added Sumner, "the harlot, Slavery.”
Representative Preston Brooks, Butler's South Carolina
kinsman, entered the Senate three days later and slammed
his metal-topped cane onto the unsuspecting Sumner's head
leaving him bloody and unconscious.
George S. Park, the founder
of Parkville, Missouri, and
owner of the Parkville
Luminary newspaper, dared
to speak out against the
actions of the "Border
Ruffians." As a result, they
took revenge by breaking
into the newspaper office
and throwing the printing
press into the nearby
Missouri River.
Territorial Governor Andrew
Reeder fled the territory disguised
as a woodcutter because the
proslavery Border Ruffians
threatened to hang him.
Pearl-handled sword of Col. Henry Theodore Titus, leader of
pro-slavery forces during “Bleeding Kansas”.
* In 1856, an abolitionist named John Brown murdered five
proslavery men.
* Over 200 people died in the fighting that followed.
The abolitionist John Brown lived
in Osawatomie, Kansas
Territory. Brown and his sons
were responsible for the brutal
murder of several proslavery men
near Pottawatomie, Kansas. The
men were called out of their
homes at night and hacked to
death with swords. This was just
one of many incidents that earned
Kansas Territory the name of
"Bleeding Kansas.”
Marais de Cygne Massacre
“Bleeding
Kansas”
Video
(4:02)
In May 1858, proslavery settlers executed a group of their
free state neighbors along the Marais de Cygne river in
southeastern Kansas Territory.