may 30, 1854 - Kansas-Nebraska Act

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act was proposed by Stephen A Douglas, a US senator, who wanted railroads built to connect the main portion of the US to Nebraska and Kansas (and eventually to Illinois where he lived). While this act did not directly have anything to do with slavery, he proposed the concept of popular sovereignty in an attempt to lessen the slavery tension in new territory. Popular sovereignty said that each state had the right to vote if they wanted to keep or ban slavery.

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