Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Chapter 11, Lesson 3: The Road to Bleeding Kansas (pp. 325-329)
I. The Kansas-Nebraska Act Paves the Way
B. The Republican Party was created in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and became the antislavery party.
C. Northerners opposed popular sovereignty, became it made the Missouri Compromise meaningless and opened up the possibility of slavery in new western states.
B. Small skirmishes broke out between pro- and antislavery forces, killing about 200 people in just a few months.
C. Congressman Preston Brooks's physical attack on Senator Charles Sumner, along with the fighting in Kansas, showed Americans how the issue of slavery could lead to violence.
B. James Buchanan, a Democrat who supported popular sovereignty, won the election, but antislavery Republicans made a very strong showing.
Lesson at a Glance Outline
A. The Kansas-Nebraska Act established popular sovereignty for those two territories, which meant that voters in each territory could choose to be either a slave or free state.
II. Kansas Bleeds Under Western Expansion
A. Though most settlers in Kansas were antislavery, proslavery groups from Missouri crossed into Kansas to vote illegally, and elected a proslavery government.
III. Buchanan Gains a Narrow Victory
A. The presidential election of 1856 was a three-way race over the issue of slavery in the territories.
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