Kansas-Nebraska Act

Question

The Compromise of 1850 did not stop debates over slavery, especially in regard to western territories and new states. In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

According to the act, the people in the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska would vote on whether to allow slavery in their territories. This law undid part of the Missouri Compromise, which had previously drawn a line to divide territories between slave and free.


The following map shows the United States in 1854. Look at the map. Then answer the question below.

Question
The Kansas-Nebraska Act angered many anti-slavery Northerners. Based on the map, why?(1 point)
Responses

According to the Missouri Compromise, Kansas and Nebraska should have been slave territories.
According to the Missouri Compromise, Kansas and Nebraska should have been slave territories.

According to the Missouri Compromise, Kansas and Nebraska should have been free territories.
According to the Missouri Compromise, Kansas and Nebraska should have been free territories.

According to the Missouri Compromise, slavery should only have been allowed in Kansas.

Answer 1

The correct response is:

According to the Missouri Compromise, Kansas and Nebraska should have been free territories.

This is because the Missouri Compromise established a line that determined which territories were free and which were slave. Kansas and Nebraska were located north of that line, meaning they were expected to be free territories according to the earlier agreement. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed voters to decide the issue of slavery, undermined the Missouri Compromise, causing anger among anti-slavery Northerners.