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AP U.S. History 1.4 Period 5: 1848-1877 221 Views


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AP U.S. History 1.4 Period 5: 1848-1877. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 marked what legislative change in the western territories?

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Transcript

00:00

[ musical flourish ]

00:03

And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the Kansas-Nebraska Act,

00:07

the plainest vaudeville show of all time.

00:10

Okay, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 marked

00:13

what legislative change in the western territories?

00:17

These things over here.

00:18

And here are your potential answers.

00:20

[ elephant trumpets ]

00:24

Okay.

00:25

What exactly is this question asking, people?

00:28

Well, we know the Kansas-Nebraska Act

00:30

shook things up by allowing settlers to vote on whether or not

00:33

they wanted slavery in the newly created territories

00:35

of Kansas and Nebraska. So let's see

00:37

which answer best describes the ramifications

00:40

of such a big decision.

00:42

Did the Kansas-Nebraska Act

00:43

A - invalidate the idea of popular sovereignty?

00:47

Well, actually, the Act was a huge boost

00:50

for popular sovereignty, which is the right

00:52

to make a decision through voting.

00:54

In fact, when the Act was passed, a huge number

00:57

of settlers rushed into the state, hoping

00:59

to have their say in whether Kansas would tilt towards slavery

01:03

or toward freedom. So that knocks out A and D.

01:06

Did the Kansas-Nebraska Act shake things up because C -

01:09

it temporarily granted Blacks the right to vote?

01:12

Hmm. Well, Blacks were not granted the right to vote

01:15

until after the Civil War, so we're about

01:17

ten years early on that one.

01:19

Which means the Kansas-Nebraska Act's biggest legislative impact was

01:22

B - it effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

01:27

Well, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 forbade slavery in

01:30

any territory north of the latitude line that marked

01:32

the southern border of Missouri.

01:34

This one, right here.

01:35

But Kansas and Nebraska are both north of that line.

01:38

And by opening the issue to a popular vote,

01:41

the Kansas-Nebraska Act invalidated the Compromise.

01:44

So B is the right answer.

01:46

And that must have made Missouri pretty, well,

01:49

Missouri-able.

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