The Compromise of 1850 and Bleeding Kansas

Stephen Douglas played an important role in the creation of the Compromise of 1850. This provided popular sovereignty for the people. Neighboring states disagreed on slavery and they would stuff each other's ballot boxes. This led to violence which became known as Bleeding Kansas. Kansas was separated on the issue of slavery: proslavery Southerners against abolitionist Northerners. Mobs created a civil war within Kansas with lynching, bushwhacking, and burning. John Brown and four of his sons captured proslavery settlers and hacked them to death with broadswords in front of their families. More than 200 people died in Bleeding Kansas.