30 maio 1854 ano - Kansas-Nebraska Act

Descrição:

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, sponsored by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, was an act to expand popular sovereignty on the issue of slavery to the Kansas and Nebraska Territories. Instead of the federal government deciding if they were free or slave, the people of the territories would decide, just as they did in Utah and New Mexico in the Compromise of 1850. Douglas pushed for popular sovereignty to allow the people of the territories to choose their own rules, but there was also another motive. This would encourage more people from both pro- and anti-slavery factions to move into Kansas and Nebraska in order to try to influence them to one side or the other. With these new people, the organisation of these lands into the Kansas and Nebraska territories, and the Act's repeal of the Missouri Compromise line, it became easier to build a transcontinental railroad through the Great Plains. The northerners were angry at the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, but this action was able to garner more southern support for the railroad, which was a goal of Douglas, as he believed that it would help to quell the conflicts between the North and South.

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