Kansas, passed to the United States as…

Kansas, passed to the United States as a part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, has since 1830 been in an area designated as Indian Territory, where the U.S. government has relocated tribes who occupy lands wanted by Euramericans.

On May 30, 1854, the U.S. Congress passes Senator Stephen A. Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repeals the prohibition of slavery north of latitude 36°0' (established in the Missouri Compromise of 1820).

Kansas is organized as a territory, including most of the eastern half of present-day Colorado.

In a break with precedent, Congress allows the territory's citizens to determine the slavery question for themselves.

This most crucial application of the doctrine of “popular sovereignty” (called Squatter Sovereignty by its detractors) makes slavery legally possible in a vast new area.