Popular Sovereignty In Bleeding Kansas

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Popular sovereignty is a doctrine created that gives the citizens of the new territories a vote to decide if they would become a free state or a slave state. I disagree with Douglas’ view regarding popular sovereignty as a solution in determining if a state is a free state or slave state because people illegally voted, it led to Bleeding Kansas, and it didn’t solve the problem.

Popular sovereignty was not a good solution in determining if a state was a free or slave state because people moved there and illegally voted, which caused violence and conflict. When people learned that Kansas was voting to determine if it would become a free or slave state, both pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups sent people to Kansas to vote. This caused the violence …show more content…
Bleeding Kansas happened because many illegal voters moved to Kansas, violence broke out because of the vote on slavery legality. This divided the country more and was one of the factors that pushed the country closer to a civil war. Bleeding Kansas caused a lot of destruction, death, anger, and showed that instead of solving conflict, popular sovereignty caused more conflict. The article, “Bleeding Kansas” on History.com states, “Sporadic outbursts of violence occurred between pro-and anti-slavery forces in late 1855 and early 1856. In a sharp escalation of the violence, a pro-slavery group stormed the Free State stronghold of Lawrence on May 21, 1856, destroying printing presses, looting homes and stores and setting fire to a hotel.” The article shows the negative effects of popular sovereignty and proves that violence between pro slavery groups and anti slavery groups increased. Therefore, popular sovereignty is not a good way to decide on slavery’s legality because it caused more problems and was a factor in the civil war. During the violence of the elections and Bleeding Kansas, several buildings were burned and 55 lives were lost, the most in any Union state, showing the negative impact popular sovereignty created. Popular …show more content…
Popular sovereignty was not effective because people moved to the new territories just to vote and this led to conflict between citizens for and against slavery resulting in Bleeding Kansas. This shows the ineffectiveness of popular sovereignty because it didn’t help Kansas reach a decision quickly and just caused more problems and conflict. In the article “Bleeding Kansas” on History.com, it states, “The unsettled situation in Kansas was still a matter of heated controversy during the 1858 Senate race in Illinois, when the former one-term congressman Abraham Lincoln, now a Republican, challenged Douglas for his Senate seat.” According to the article the decision was still unsettled and controversial 3 years later showing how popular sovereignty was unsuccessful in helping to reach a decision. Additionally, popular sovereignty caused more conflict over Kansas and new territories because the pro slavery and anti slavery groups realized they could control the outcome of the vote if they illegally voted and fought for control of the state. The conflict prevented a decision to be reached because both sides were so focused on fighting and not on compromising, and they were already divided. This means that popular sovereignty is not a good solution to determining if states will become free or slave
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