978-1-4222-3326-9

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Lower Plains: Kansas, Nebraska

In early 1854, U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois introduced a bill in Congress that divided the land west of Missouri into two terri- tories, Kansas and Nebraska. Both of these territories should have been “free” states under the terms of the 1820 Missouri Compromise, which had outlawed slavery above the 36º 30’ latitude. However, Douglas proposed that settlers in each of the territories should decide whether slav- ery would be permit- ted, a doctrine he called “popular sover- eignty.” The legislation, officially titled “An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas,” reignited the national debate over slavery in the western territories.