The passage summarizes the political tensions and violence that emerged in Kansas in the 1850s following the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The act established popular sovereignty in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, dividing the Louisiana Purchase lands between them, and led to abolitionists and pro-slavery groups rushing to Kansas to gain control over whether it would allow slavery. Fraudulent elections and attacks by the rival groups on towns like Lawrence and Pottawatomie resulted in over 200 deaths and made Kansas a battlefield in the national debate over slavery, known as "Bleeding Kansas."

1. CHAPTER 15:
A Divided Nation
Section 2:
Trouble in Kansas

2. THE ELECTION OF 1852
 Franklin Pierce (Democrat) defeats
Winfield Scott (Whig)
• Because Pierce supported the
Compromise of 1850

3. “The slavery issue has been put
to rest, an no sectional
excitement may again threaten
the durability of our institutions”

4. THE KANSAS –
NEBRASKA ACT
 1854 - South wants to open up
more land to popular sovereignty

5. THE KANSAS –
NEBRASKA ACT
 Congress passes the Kansas –
Nebraska Act
• Divides remainder of Louisiana
Purchase into Kansas & Nebraska
Territories
• Popular sovereignty in both

6. The Kansas – Nebraska Act

7. KANSAS IS DIVIDED

Abolitionist
and pro-
slavery
groups rush
supporters
to go live in
Kansas

8. 1855
Kansas
Elections

9. KANSAS IS DIVIDED
 Pro-slavery
groups win the
election because
of fraud
 So
abolitionists
form their own
government

10. Topeka
Lecompton
Two Capital Cities in Kansas

11. Kansas Kansas
abolitionist pro-slavery
flag flag

12. BLEEDING KANSAS
 Tensions rise and the two groups
begin to fight

13. Pro-slavery
“sack” of
Lawrence

14. Abolitionist
“Pottawatomie
Massacre”
led by
John Brown

15. BLEEDING KANSAS
 “Bleeding Kansas” is a statewide
civil war

16. BLEEDING KANSAS
 Over 200 people were killed

17. Pro-slavery Senator Preston Brooks beats
abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner with
a cane on the floor of the U.S. Senate