USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -16, 1854. On this day in 1854, Abraham Lincoln, as a congressional candidate from Illinois, spoke out against the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which Congress had passed five months earlier. In his speech, the future president outlined his views on slavery, which he called “immoral.”

Detailed explanation-2: -Slavery existed in Kansas Territory, but on a much smaller scale than in the South. Most slaveholders owned only one or two slaves. Many slaves were women and children who performed domestic work rather than farm labor.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. The Kansas-Nebraska Act infuriated many in the North who considered the Missouri Compromise to be a long-standing binding agreement. In the pro-slavery South it was strongly supported.

Detailed explanation-4: -It became law on May 30, 1854. The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. It also produced a violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas, ” as proslavery and antislavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote.