Question

Missouri compromise by suggesting the earlier division of the country along the thirty-sixth parallel into free states and slave states no longer applied. Indeed, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 permitted slavery. The resulting bloodshed in Kansas, like later incidents at Harper's Ferry, presaged the violent conflict of the Civil War."
- Library of Congress
Use the passage to answer the question.
What does the author mean in saying that popular sovereignty
"undermined the Missouri compromise"?
(1 point)
It maintained the division of free and slave states.
It expanded slavery to the Northern free states.
It forced slaves who had
• escaped to be returned to a slave state.
It reopened debate over
• the border between free and slave states.

Answer 1

The author means that popular sovereignty "undermined the Missouri Compromise" by stating that it reopened debate over the border between free and slave states. The Missouri Compromise established a clear division between free and slave states along the 36th parallel, but the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed new territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery, which effectively disregarded that established boundary and reignited contentious debates over the status of slavery in new territories.