​Today's Lesson

​Objective: How did westward expansion become a sectional issue?

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​Examples:

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​Compromise of 1850

​Popular Soverignty

​Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

​Compromise of 1850

• ​California would become a free state (without slavery).

• Other territory gained through the Mexican-American War would be decided through popular sovereignty, the people of the territory would vote whether slavery was legal or illegal.

• ​Strong fugitive slave laws would be enforced. If a runaway enslaved person escapes to a free state, it would be illegal for people to try to protect them.

​Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

• ​The Compromise of 1850 failed and just made people angrier.

• Senator​ Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act to organize the Nebraska territory into states. The issue of slavery would be determined by popular sovereignty.

• This angered abolitionists because it allowed the possibility that slavery would be allowed in places where it was banned.

​Bleeding Kansas

• ​Pro-Slavery defenders and abolitionists from other states arrived in Kansas to try to influence the vote.​

  ​Violence and fighting broke out between the two groups.

• Both sides declared victory and set up their own governments and constitutions inside the state. Popular Sovereignty did not work.