Class Summary 11/26/12

Last week we did not have class so my summary starts and ends with what we did today. Today we learned about the Kansas-Nebraska act. Stephen Douglass was the one who proposed the act stating that Kansas and Nebraska should be able to determine whether or not they would be a free state or slave state by popular sovereignty. The southerners supported this act because it would give them a chance to have at least one more slave state. The Northerners disagreed with the act because it went against the Missouri Compromise. Border Ruffians who were pro-slavery sent in a lot of people illegally to vote for a slave state. After the two states decisions were announced Northerners were angry and the antislavery settlers actually rebelled and killed five pro-slavery people in Pottawatomie Creek. More than 200 people had been killed in Kansas due to the disputes about slavery. We then learned about how Charles Sumner, an abolitionist senator in a speech criticized Southerners and denounced Andrew Butler the senator of South Carolina. Andrew Butler's relative Preston Brooks attacked Sumner's using his cane, scaring Sumner from assuming the role of senator for three years. We finished class by learning about the way the US dealt with unorganized territory. They decided to organize it and use Popular Sovereignty.