Uncle Tom’s Cabin & The Kansas-Nebraska Act  Uncle Tom’s Cabin Uncle Tom’s Cabin  Written by Stowe in 1852  Dramatically portrayed slavery in a negative way  Increased opposition to slavery  Plot: Tells life of Tom (former slave) under three owners, one of which was very cruel  Kansas-Nebraska Act  Steven Douglas proposed that Nebraska be divided into two territories: Kansas and Nebraska  Said the people in each territory would determine whether or not it would allow slavery (popular sovereignty)  Act angered abolitionists

“Bleeding Kansas”  Proslavery and antislavery settlers rushed to Kansas so that they could vote to determine slavery  At the time of the election, there were more proslavery settlers, but they were afraid of losing the election  5,000 people from Missouri went to Kansas and voted illegally  Antislavery settlers boycotted new government  Both sides armed themselves  John Brown (extreme abolitionist) murdered five proslavery neighbors in revenge for proslavery violence

Case of Dred Scott  Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri  His owner took him to a territory where slavery was illegal but later returned to Missouri  After his owner’s death, Scott sued for freedom because he had lived where slavery was illegal  His case reached the Supreme Court (Dred Scott v. Sandford)  Supreme Court ruled against Scott: said that Scott was not a US citizen and therefore couldn’t sue in US courts  Supreme Court said that Congress could not ban slavery in the territory since it denied people their property rights