[Music] hey guys welcome to hip's history where we get all dizzy for the learning in today's lecture we're going to take a look at the Kansas Nebraska Act I'm so excited for all of us but uh especially if you're in school and you're studying we're just going to take a few minutes guys and cover it it's major legislation that's going to help you B bang pass your exam all right so here we go come with me to the house of learning ah all right so there's a couple things that I think are really important to understand first we're dealing with the issue of sectionalism 1854 guys is only a decade off less than a decade off five six years off from the Civil War breaking out so I think it's really important that we first kind of recognize that we're looking through the lens of the Civil War so uh couple names the first name you're going to need bang bang Steven Douglas Steven Douglas just beat Abraham Lincoln and is now the senator from Illinois um Lincoln Douglas debates are very famous and you'll find out in a moment that really they're all revolving around this issue so Steven Douglas's big issue is that he really doesn't want the nation to have to have a civil war so he's trying to find a way to kind of uh not take a side and really kind of broker some kind of way of uh just not really dealing with slavery the issue is going to kind of come onto the front burner of America um in 1854 because there's two new states that are coming into the Union Kansas Nebraska think just call the Kansas Nebraska Act and um for years the country was living under the umbrella of the Missouri Compromise and the Missouri Compromise had created this kind of invisible line across the United States which um was supposed to decide once and for all kind of the issues of slavery if you're up above the line you were free if you're down below the line you're a slave state problem solved but of course in 1850 we have this Compromise of 1850 with California coming in and the Missouri Compromise really starts to fall apart and in 1854 it's going to further fall apart when it's decided through this bill written by Steven Douglas that we're now going to use you ready for the vocabulary I'm so excited popular sovereignty to solve the problem of slavery and this was really at the end of the day what the issue in the Lincoln Douglas debates was Lincoln is a member of uh really kind of a third party group called The Free Soil Party and he sees the West as free land Lincoln's not going to go down south and like free slaves but he definitely sees these new States coming in as free states and and especially after the Missouri Compromise Kansas and Nebraska Act the territories didn't have slavery so it was always thought they would never have slavery and now for the first time we see slavery expanding into free territories and I think that's the fear that's the big deal that's what's ripping the country apart so um it seems like a democratic solution popular sovereignty which just means voting we're going to let the settlers decide for the themselves that way Steven Douglas doesn't take a take an issue he can just say let democracy fix the problem but here's the problem because it's a miserable failure I think that's the first thing you really want to kind of get as a conclusion hashtag fail because what happens is rather than having some kind of like you know Democratic process play out where they vote and all in favor of slavery raise your hand it ends up as Bloody Kansas that's the vocab word I would encourage you to wrap your head around right now because basically uh when they ring that dinner bell that the vote's going to happen that dinner bell is heard by every radical you know slave owning want slavery to expand sorry for the southern accent no offense and you're going to get the radical abolitionists you're going to get the people from North and here's another bang bang name John Brown John Brown the radical abolitionist he's going to wa make his way to Kansas not to talk about slavery but to to to really kind of radically push for abolitionism and certainly to stop um you know any kind of slavery from spreading into Kansas and that actually spills off into him eventually uh getting out to Harper's Ferry um and uh trying to overthrow the United States government so uh the Kansas Nebraska Act and its popular sovereignty um as a method to try to kind of save off the Civil War is not going to work it's going to fail so at the end of the day the vote really doesn't matter um at the end of the day what matters is this is kind of uh uh an episode in American history which is going to radicalize a lot of people and which is really going to push the nation closer to Civil War rather than farther away so nice try Stephen Douglas you try again later but also it's now really going to formulate the Republican Party rather than being free soilers lincing and his band of brothers are going to wrap their Banner around the Republican party this new political party that's focused on economic expansionism and uh certainly stopping the spreading of slavery um but eventually polishing slavery so gidy up for the learning right there so now you got it guys the Kansas Nebraska Act all right guys see you next time that you press my buttons go ahead I dare you press my buttons and remember wherever you go where attention goes energy flow I tricked you I came back because I forgot something I forgot to give the loudest shout out ever to the folks at Arthur E Wright Middle School that's out in Cali baby and led by their passionate teacher Miss Darcy Miller I know that you're doing good by your kids um Kaylee actually gave me an email and talked about uh how you following the hippu history and I just wanted to show my gratitude by giving you guys hash shout out there you go guys we'll see you next time thanks again [Music]