Last week, we continued our discussions on the topic of slavery. Reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and a part of Fredrick Douglass's speech, along with some other documents we began to receive a broad and multi-sided view of the issue.
Today, we learned about the Kansas Nebraska Act (1854) and the rising tensions throughout the country. This act repealed the Missouri compromise and divided the Nebraska Territory be divided into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska; and settlers living in each territory would decide the issue of slavery by popular sovereignty. Due to the new territories being surrounded by slaves states, both states became slave states. The unrest from this conflict multiplied as proslavery and anti-slavery forces sent settlers pouring into Kansas to physically fight for the territory. Two rival governments sprang up, creating havoc throughout Kansas. The state quickly became known as "Bleeding Kansas." Tensions came to a head when Andrew Bulter from South Carolina beat Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Senator from Massachusetts with a cane. Slavery was vastly becoming an extremely volatile issue.
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