Look at slides 6-10 of Chapter 16 posted last week.

As people were moving into the Great Plains (the area between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains) the question of slavery expansion needed to be made clear. In 1854, Senator Stephen Douglas proposed the Kansas/Nebraska Act which created two territories where the people would vote if they wanted slavery when they became a state. This is known as popular sovereignty.

Bleeding Kansas: In 1855, Kansas applied for statehood and held an election if it would be a free or slave state. There was a lot of cheating in the election and both sides said that they won. Two state governments were created, one in favor of slavery and one against. Some proslavers set fire to an antislavery newspaper building.

John Brown was a white abolitionist who believed that it was his religious duty to end slavery throughout the U.S. He and his sons went to Kansas, dragged 5 proslavers out of their houses at night, and killed them. Some abolitionist newspapers in the north said that John Brown’s actions were right. This angered many southerners. Fighting broke out in Kansas and over 200 people were killed between 1855-1856.

Please go to youtube.com. Type in : The Kansas/Nebraska Act Watch video: The Kansas / Nebraska Act ( 2 min 35 sec )

Also in youtube, Type in: John Brown Watch video: John Brown and Bleeding Kansas ( 2 min 13 sec )

On Friday, there will be an opportunity to take The Antebellum Period quiz if you missed it Monday or got a grade below 7/10. You must sign into the quiz on Googleclassroom and submit before 3:00 PM.