The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was a United States federal law that opened the Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory to white settlement north of the parallel 36°30′ north. The act was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois and introduced in the Senate on January 4, 1854.
Checkout this video:
The Missouri Compromise
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was crafted by Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois and signed into law by President Franklin Pierce. The Act nullified the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had served to maintain a delicate balance of power between the Slave and Free states. The Act was one of the major catalysts for the outbreak of the American Civil War.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an act of the United States Congress that effectively nullified the Missouri Compromise of 1820, thereby opening up the western territories of the United States to slavery. The act was passed by Congress on May 8, 1854, and was signed into law by President Franklin Pierce on May 30.
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a set of bills passed by the United States Congress in order to appease both pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the nation ahead of the Mexican-American War. The bills included the following provisions:
-The admission of California as a free state
-A ban on the slave trade in Washington, D.C.
-The creation of territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah without mentioning slavery
-The enforcement of stricter fugitive slave laws
The Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act was nullified by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Fugitive Slave Act was a federal law that required all citizens to return escaped slaves to their owners. It was nullified by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and opened them up to settlement by all citizens, regardless of their views on slavery.
